allow
/əˈlaʊ/
"allow" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“allow” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,039. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,039
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To let one have as a suitable share of something.
Corpus desk
Index EN-allow · allow · English
allow · rank #1,039 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,039
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH ahead
Nearest frequency peer: ahead (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “allow”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- weight
weight
98,965 corpus weight
- addition
addition
98,964 corpus weight
- ahead
ahead
98,963 corpus weight
- allow
allow
98,962 corpus weight
- association
association
98,960 corpus weight
- beat
beat
98,959 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “allow” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | allow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əˈlaʊ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,039 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “allow” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around allow (IPA /əˈlaʊ/), averb. Corpus frequency is #1,039 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 12 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for allow, with forms such as "alloww", "allwo", and "alolw". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "also", "ally", "alot", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Latin laus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin laudō Latin allaudō… The correct English form is allow, spelled A-L-L-O-W.
Definition
- 1To let one have as a suitable share of something.
- 2To permit, to give permission to.
- 3To not bar or obstruct.
- 4To acknowledge, accept the truth of; to concede; to accede to an opinion; to say something one agrees on in the context of a larger disagreement or reluctance.
- 5To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; especially to abate or deduct.
- 6To make an allowance, to take into account when making plans.
- 7To render physically possible.
- 8To praise; to approve of; hence, to sanction.
- 9To sanction; to invest; to entrust.
- 10To like; to be suited or pleased with.
- 11To decide (a request) in favour of the party who raised it; to grant victory to a party regarding (a request).
- 12To forgo bothering with, to let slide.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how allow appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
to allow a servant his liberty; to allow a free passage; to allow one day for rest
[…] he needed a great deal of money, but his uncle only allowed him two thousand roubles a year, which was not enough, and for days together he would run about Moscow with his tongue out, as the saying is.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Latin laus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin laudō Latin allaudō Old French aloer ▲ Latin ad- Latin locus ▲ Latin -ō Latin locō Latin allocō Old French aloer Anglo-Norman alouerbor. Middle English allowen English allow From Middle English allowen, alowen, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman allouer, alouer, from Medieval Latin allaudāre, merged with alouer, from Medieval Latin allocō (“to assign”). Doublet of allaud (via allaudāre) or allocate (via allocāre). The similarity with Middle English alyfen (from Old English ālīefan) and German erlauben, both from Proto-Germanic *uzlaubijaną (“to allow”) is unrelated.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- alloww
- allwo
- alolw
- alow
- lalow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of allow - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "allow", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "allow". Here's where to go from here.
- "allow" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "also". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #1,039 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "A" letter cohort. A–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.