alert
/əˈlɜːt/
"alert" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alert” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,057 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #4,057
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Attentive; awake; on guard.
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 | alert |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /əˈlɜːt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #4,057 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “alert” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for alert is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈlɜːt/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,057 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for alert, with forms such as "aelrt", "alerrt", and "alertt". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "art", "alt", "Alex", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French alerte (“alert”), from the phrase à l'erte (“on the watch”), from Italian all'erta (“to the height”), from erta (“lookout, tower”). The correct English form is alert, spelled A-L-E-R-T.
Definition
- 1Attentive; awake; on guard.
- 2brisk; nimble; moving with celerity.
Etymology
From French alerte (“alert”), from the phrase à l'erte (“on the watch”), from Italian all'erta (“to the height”), from erta (“lookout, tower”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aelrt,alerrt,alertt,aletr,allert,alret,laert
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of alert - 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 “alert”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-L-E-R-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈlɜːt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “art” - see the side-by-side comparison. alert vs art
- 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.