allophone
/ˈaləˌfəʊn/
"allophone" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“allophone” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of two or more alternative pronunciations for a phoneme.
Corpus desk
Index EN-allophone · allophone · English
allophone · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | allophone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈaləˌfəʊn/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “allophone” in English
Rare enough to double-check
allophone is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈaləˌfəʊn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for allophone, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From allo- (“different”) + -phone. The correct English form is allophone, spelled A-L-L-O-P-H-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1Any of two or more alternative pronunciations for a phoneme.
- 2A person whose mother tongue is one other than that spoken by the majority.
- 3A person whose mother tongue is one other than that spoken by the majority.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how allophone appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In some languages, [ʋ] is an allophone of /v/.
In the former the bilabial phone forms an allophone of the phoneme /v/ in word-final position after /a/ and an allophone of the phoneme /u/ when it is preceded by an obstruent and followed by /a/; […]
Etymology
From allo- (“different”) + -phone.
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.