alarm clock

noun

"alarm-clock" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“alarm clock” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A clock designed to sound an alert at a preset time, primarily to wake someone from sleep.

Corpus desk

Index EN-alarm-clock · alarm clock · English

alarm clock · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "A" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for alarm clock
PropertyValue
Headwordalarm clock
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “alarm clock” in English

alarm clockranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

alarm clock is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A clock designed to sound an alert at a preset time, primarily to wake someone from sleep.".

Zero misspellings are on record for alarm clock in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is alarm clock, spelled A-L-A-R-M- -C-L-O-C-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    A clock designed to sound an alert at a preset time, primarily to wake someone from sleep.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how alarm clock appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. "I should suggest an alarum clock," he said briskly. "I always use one myself for fear of oversleeping.[…]"

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "alarm clock"?
"alarm clock" is spelled A-L-A-R-M- -C-L-O-C-K.
What does "alarm clock" mean?
As a noun, "alarm clock" means: A clock designed to sound an alert at a preset time, primarily to wake someone from sleep.
What language does "alarm clock" come from?
"alarm clock" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list