ale
/eɪl/
"ale" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ale” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #11,500) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #11,500
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A beer made without hops.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ale · ale · English
ale · rank #11,500 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #11,500
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH addict
Nearest frequency peer: addict (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “ale”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Willis
Willis
88,505 corpus weight
- willow
willow
88,504 corpus weight
- addict
addict
88,502 corpus weight
- ale
ale
88,501 corpus weight
- API
API
88,500 corpus weight
- archaeologi…
archaeological
88,499 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “ale” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | ale |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /eɪl/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #11,500 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ale” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for ale is neighbouring look-alikes ("as", "at", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /eɪl/. Frequency #11,500 among 3,931 “A” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ale, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "at", "an", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ale, from Old English ealu, ealo, from Proto-West Germanic *alu, from Proto-Germanic *alu (compare Dutch aal, Swedish öl), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elut- (“beer”), or *h₂elu- (“bitter”). Compare Russian ол (ol), Lithuanian alùs, Armen… The correct English form is ale, spelled A-L-E.
Definition
- 1A beer made without hops.
- 2A beer produced by so-called warm fermentation and not pressurized.
- 3A festival in English country places, so called from the liquor drunk.
Etymology
From Middle English ale, from Old English ealu, ealo, from Proto-West Germanic *alu, from Proto-Germanic *alu (compare Dutch aal, Swedish öl), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elut- (“beer”), or *h₂elu- (“bitter”). Compare Russian ол (ol), Lithuanian alùs, Armenian օղի (ōġi); compare also Latin alum (“comfrey”), alūta (“tawed leather”), Ancient Greek ἀλύδοιμος (alúdoimos, “bitter”).
Synonyms
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ale", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "ale". Here's where to go from here.
- "ale" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "as". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #11,500 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "A" letter cohort. A–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.