alcohol
/ˈæl.kə.hɒl/
"alcohol" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alcohol” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,424 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,424
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of a class of organic compounds (such as ethanol) containing a hydroxyl functional group (-OH).
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 | alcohol |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈæl.kə.hɒl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #2,424 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “alcohol” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for alcohol is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈæl.kə.hɒl/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,424 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for alcohol, with forms such as "aclohol", "alccohol", and "alchool". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "alcoholic", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Akkadian 𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum)bor. Aramaic כוחלא (kuḥlā)bor. Arabic كُحْل (kuḥl) Andalusian Arabic اَلْكُحُول (al-kuḥūl)bor. Medieval Latin alcoholder. Middle English alcofol English alcohol First attested in the 15th century from Middle Englis… The correct English form is alcohol, spelled A-L-C-O-H-O-L.
Definition
- 1Any of a class of organic compounds (such as ethanol) containing a hydroxyl functional group (-OH).
- 2Ethanol.
- 3Beverages containing ethanol, collectively.
- 4Any very fine powder.
Etymology
Etymology tree Akkadian 𒎎𒋆𒁉𒍣𒁕 (guḫlum)bor. Aramaic כוחלא (kuḥlā)bor. Arabic كُحْل (kuḥl) Andalusian Arabic اَلْكُحُول (al-kuḥūl)bor. Medieval Latin alcoholder. Middle English alcofol English alcohol First attested in the 15th century from Middle English alcofol, from Middle French alcohol or Spanish alcohol, derived from the Medieval Latin rendering alcohol transmitted in medical or alchemical literature of Arabic اَلْكُحْل (al-kuḥl, “kohl”), which in Andalusian Arabic also bore the form كُحُول (kuḥūl), قُحُول (quḥūl); bearing thus the meaning of stibnite first, then generalized in meaning to a powder obtained by triturating a material, then also to liquids obtained by boiling down, and specialized to mean spirit of wine, ethanol, in the 18th century, then the narrow chemical sense after 1850. Doublet of alcool and kohl. Various old etymological notes. * Bartholomew Traheron in his 1543 translation of John of Vigo introduces the word as a term used by "barbarous" (Moorish) authors for "fine powder": the barbarous auctours use alcohol, or (as I fynde it sometymes wryten) alcofoll, for moost fine poudre. * William Johnson in his 1657 Lexicon Chymicum glosses the word as antimonium sive stibium. By extension, the word came to refer to any fluid obtained by distillation, including "alcohol of wine", the distilled essence of wine. * Libavius in Alchymia (1594) has vini alcohol vel vinum alcalisatum. * Johnson (1657) glosses alcohol vini as quando omnis superfluitas vini a vino separatur, ita ut accensum ardeat donec totum consumatur, nihilque fæcum aut phlegmatis in fundo remaneat. * Some authorities, including Rachel Hajar, suggest that the ultimate etymon was the Arabic term اَلْغَوْل (al-ḡawl, “bad effect, evil result of headache”) (as used in Qur’an verse 37:47, but this word is rather poetical and could for topical reasons not have been picked up from Arabic by Medieval writers, and aside from that the relation to stibium is well documented.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aclohol,alccohol,alchool,alcohhol,alcohlo,alcoholl,alcoohl,allcohol,alochol,lacohol
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of alcohol - 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
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Using “alcohol”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-L-C-O-H-O-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈæl.kə.hɒl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “alcoholic” - see the side-by-side comparison. alcohol vs alcoholic
- 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.