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allay

/əˈleɪ/verb, noun

allay is spelled A-L-L-A-Y: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,145th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, allay means “To make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in allay?

Letters5: A-L-L-A-Y
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 42,145th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is allay?

Allay appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,145th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce allay?

  • /əˈleɪ/

Allay has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Mélange_a_trois-allay.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of allay

  • allays present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • allaying participle, present
  • allayed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does allay mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm.

    to allay popular excitement

  2. 2

    To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.

    to allay the severity of affliction or the bitterness of adversity

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo subside, abate, become peaceful.

  4. 4

    archaicTo mix (metals); to mix with a baser metal; to alloy; to deteriorate.

  5. 5

    archaicTo make worse by the introduction of inferior elements.

noun

  1. 1

    Alleviation; abatement; check.

  2. 2

    obsoleteAn alloy.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Allay in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchapaiser, pacifier (to make quiet or put at rest), soulager (to alleviate)
Germanberuhigen, dämpfen (to make quiet or put at rest), erleichtern, lindern (to alleviate)
Portugueseaquietar (to make quiet or put at rest), aliviar (to alleviate)
Spanishaquietar, calmar (to make quiet or put at rest), aliviar, mitigar (to alleviate)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does allay come from?

From Middle English alayen, aleyen, aleggen, from Old English āleċġan (“to put, place, lay down, lay aside, throw down, give up, cease from, abandon; put down, allay, suppress, abolish, conquer, destroy, overcome, refute; lay upon, inflict, impose upon; diminish, take away, refuse, lessen, withhold”), from Proto-Germanic *uzlagjaną (“to lay down”), equivalent to a- + lay. Cognate with German erlegen (“to impose, cause to succumb, kill”), Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (uslagjan, “to lay down”). In Middle English the word was identical to forms of allege and alloy, leading to much overlapping of senses.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after allay