all-purpose
/ˌɔlˈpɝpəs/
"all-purpose" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“all-purpose” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - For all purposes.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | all-purpose |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌɔlˈpɝpəs/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “all-purpose” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for all-purpose is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌɔlˈpɝpəs/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "For all purposes.".
all-purpose doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is all-purpose, spelled A-L-L---P-U-R-P-O-S-E.
Definition
- 1For all purposes.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “all-purpose”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-L-L---P-U-R-P-O-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌɔlˈpɝpəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.