alight
/əˈlaɪt/
"alight" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alight” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,812 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #28,812
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To make less heavy; to lighten; to alleviate, to relieve.
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 | alight |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əˈlaɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #28,812 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “alight” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for alight is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈlaɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #28,812 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for alight, with forms such as "ailght", "algiht", and "aligght". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "align", "Alisha", "alright", 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 Middle English alighten (“to descend from a place: to dismount, get off; to descend to a place: to arrive or stop (at a place); to land; to drop; to attack; of lightning: to strike; to leap on to, mount; to descend in rank; to cause (someone) to lose r… The correct English form is alight, spelled A-L-I-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1To make less heavy; to lighten; to alleviate, to relieve.
- 2Often followed by from or off: to get off an animal which one has been riding; to dismount; to descend or exit from a vehicle; hence, to complete one's journey; to stop.
- 3Often followed by at, on, or upon: of something aloft: to descend and settle; to land, to lodge, to rest.
- 4To come down or go down; to descend.
- 5Often followed by on or upon: of a blow, something thrown, etc.: to land heavily.
- 6Often followed by on or upon: to find by accident; to chance upon, to come upon.
- 7To arrive.
Etymology
From Middle English alighten (“to descend from a place: to dismount, get off; to descend to a place: to arrive or stop (at a place); to land; to drop; to attack; of lightning: to strike; to leap on to, mount; to descend in rank; to cause (someone) to lose rank; to come forth, spring from; to alleviate, relieve; (Christianity) of Jesus: to come down to earth from heaven, become incarnate; to descend (to hell); of the Holy Spirit, angels, miracles, etc.: to descend (from heaven); to descend (upon someone); to appear in a place”) [and other forms], from a merger of: * Old English ālīhtan (“to alight, dismount”), from ā- (prefix meaning ‘away, from, off, out’) + līhtan, līehtan (“to descend, alight, light; to make easy or light, alleviate, lighten, relieve”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ- (“not heavy, light”); and * Old English ġelīhtan (“to descend; to come down, dismount; to make easy or light, alleviate, lighten, relieve”), from ġe- (intensifying prefix, attached to verbs to indicate completeness or perfection) + līhtan, līehtan (see above). The English word is analyzable as a- (prefix meaning ‘away, from, off, out’) + light (“to ease, lighten; to take off; to unload; to dismount; (archaic) to come down, land; to dismount”). Cognates * Middle Low German erlichten (“to lighten”) * Old High German gilīhten (“to make less heavy, lighten”) (Middle High German gelīhten); Old High German irlīhten (“to alleviate”) (Middle High German erlīhten, modern German erleichten)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ailght,algiht,aligght,alighht,alightt,aligth,alihgt,allight,laight
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of alight - 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 “alight”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-L-I-G-H-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈlaɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “align” - see the side-by-side comparison. alight vs align
- 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.