alim
/ˈɑːlɪm/
"alim" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alim” is uncommon English (frequency #68,006 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #68,006
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An educated scholar of Islamic law; a member of the ulema class
Corpus desk
Index EN-alim · alim · English
alim · rank #68,006 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #68,006
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH aniline
Nearest frequency peer: aniline (+2 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.
Long-tail ranks near “alim”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- agin
agin
32,000 corpus weight
- Ajmer
Ajmer
31,998 corpus weight
- alim
alim
31,995 corpus weight
- aniline
aniline
31,993 corpus weight
- anklet
anklet
31,992 corpus weight
- anteater
anteater
31,991 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “alim” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | alim |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɑːlɪm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #68,006 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “alim” in English
Rare enough to double-check
alim is uncommon English at frequency #68,006 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɑːlɪm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An educated scholar of Islamic law; a member of the ulema class".
No generated misspelling entries exist for alim in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Arabic عَالِم (ʕālim), active participle of عَلِمَ (ʕalima, “to know”). The correct English form is alim, spelled A-L-I-M.
Definition
- 1An educated scholar of Islamic law; a member of the ulema class
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how alim appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Akram is a working alim, lecturing in mosques and universities and dispensing fatwas on issues like inheritance and divorce.
Etymology
From Arabic عَالِم (ʕālim), active participle of عَلِمَ (ʕalima, “to know”).
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "alim", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).