alba
/ˈæl.bə/
"alba" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alba” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #18,753 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #18,753
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A type of lyrical poetry, traditionally Provençal, about lovers who must part at dawn.
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 | alba |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈæl.bə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #18,753 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “alba” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for alba is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈæl.bə/. Corpus data places it at rank #18,753 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A type of lyrical poetry, traditionally Provençal, about lovers who must part at dawn.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for alba, with forms such as "abla", "alab", and "albba". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "all", "Ali", "ana", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in 1821; borrowed from Occitan alba, ultimately from Latin albus (“white”); compare Spanish alba (“dawn”). The correct English form is alba, spelled A-L-B-A.
Definition
- 1A type of lyrical poetry, traditionally Provençal, about lovers who must part at dawn.
Etymology
First attested in 1821; borrowed from Occitan alba, ultimately from Latin albus (“white”); compare Spanish alba (“dawn”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abla,alab,albba,allba,laba
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of alba - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
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Using “alba”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-L-B-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈæl.bə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “all” - see the side-by-side comparison. alba vs all
- 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.