airstrip
/ˈɛə(ɹ)stɹɪp/
"airstrip" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“airstrip” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #36,423 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #36,423
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An aircraft landing field, usually with one runway and only basic facilities.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | airstrip |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɛə(ɹ)stɹɪp/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #36,423 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “airstrip” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for airstrip is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɛə(ɹ)stɹɪp/. Corpus data places it at rank #36,423 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An aircraft landing field, usually with one runway and only basic facilities.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for airstrip, with forms such as "airrstrip", "airsrtip", and "airsstrip". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "airship", "airstrike", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From air + strip. The correct English form is airstrip, spelled A-I-R-S-T-R-I-P.
Definition
- 1An aircraft landing field, usually with one runway and only basic facilities.
Etymology
From air + strip.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: airrstrip,airsrtip,airsstrip,airstirp,airstripp,airstrpi,airstrrip,airsttrip,airtsrip,aisrtrip,aristrip,iarstrip
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of airstrip - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "airstrip"?
What does "airstrip" mean?
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Using “airstrip”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-I-R-S-T-R-I-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɛə(ɹ)stɹɪp/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “airship” - see the side-by-side comparison. airstrip vs airship
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.