alec
noun
alec is spelled A-L-E-C: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.5 times per million words in written English, the 12,045th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Alec, the name). As a noun, alec means “An anchovy or herring, especially pickled or dried” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of alec is alecs.
How many letters and syllables are in alec?
| Letters | 4: A-L-E-C |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.5 times per million words; the 12,045th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is alec?
Alec appears 4.5 times per million words in written English, the 12,045th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Alec, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce alec?
Alec has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What rhymes with alec?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as alec.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lace, acle, alce.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of alec
- alecs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does alec mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An anchovy or herring, especially pickled or dried.
- 2
A sauce made from alecs; alec sauce.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does alec come from?
Borrowed from Latin alec (“herring”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).