Alistair
/ˈæl.ɪ.stɚ/
"alistair" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Alistair” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #20,830. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #20,830
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A male given name from Scottish Gaelic.
Corpus desk
Index EN-alistair · Alistair · English
Alistair · rank #20,830 · 11 variants · 2 confusables
- FREQ-MID #20,830
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH Albanian
Nearest frequency peer: Albanian (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “Alistair”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- aggregation
aggregation
79,174 corpus weight
- ahem
ahem
79,173 corpus weight
- Albanian
Albanian
79,172 corpus weight
- Alistair
Alistair
79,171 corpus weight
- alkaline
alkaline
79,170 corpus weight
- alum
alum
79,169 corpus weight
What this shows “Alistair” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | Alistair |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈæl.ɪ.stɚ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #20,830 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “Alistair”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around Alistair (IPA /ˈæl.ɪ.stɚ/), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #20,830 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A male given name from Scottish Gaelic.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for Alistair, with forms such as "ailstair", "alisatir", and "alisstair". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "Alastair", "Alasdair", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Scottish Gaelic Alasdair, from Norman Alexandre or Latin Alexandrus, from Ancient Greek Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros), from ἀλέξω (aléxō, “I defend”) + ἀνδρ- (andr-), the stem of ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”). The correct English form is Alistair, spelled A-L-I-S-T-A-I-R.
Definition
- 1A male given name from Scottish Gaelic.
Etymology
From Scottish Gaelic Alasdair, from Norman Alexandre or Latin Alexandrus, from Ancient Greek Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros), from ἀλέξω (aléxō, “I defend”) + ἀνδρ- (andr-), the stem of ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ailstair
- alisatir
- alisstair
- alistairr
- alistari
- alistiar
- alisttair
- alitsair
- allistair
- alsitair
- laistair
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Alistair - 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
How do you spell "Alistair"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Alistair", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).