alms
/ɑːmz/
"alms" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alms” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #33,114. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #33,114
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Something given to the poor as charity, such as money, clothing or food.
Corpus desk
Index EN-alms · alms · English
alms · rank #33,114 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #33,114
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH alludes
Nearest frequency peer: alludes (-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 “alms”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- afoot
afoot
66,891 corpus weight
- agri
agri
66,890 corpus weight
- Alla
Alla
66,889 corpus weight
- alludes
alludes
66,888 corpus weight
- alms
alms
66,887 corpus weight
- amenable
amenable
66,884 corpus weight
What this shows “alms” 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 | alms |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɑːmz/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #33,114 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “alms”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around alms (IPA /ɑːmz/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #33,114 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Something given to the poor as charity, such as money, clothing or food.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for alms, with forms such as "allms", "almms", and "almss". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "AM", "ass", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Ancient Greek ἔλεος (éleos) Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *-eyéti Proto-Indo-European *-esyéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European… The correct English form is alms, spelled A-L-M-S.
Definition
- 1Something given to the poor as charity, such as money, clothing or food.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how alms appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
She gave $10 weekly to the poor as alms, in an era when $10 was serious money.
Alms are distributed from the weekly collection.
Etymology
Etymology tree Ancient Greek ἔλεος (éleos) Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *-eyéti Proto-Indo-European *-esyéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Ancient Greek -έω (-éō) Ancient Greek ἐλεέω (eleéō) Proto-Indo-European *-mṓ Ancient Greek -μων (-mōn) Ancient Greek ἐλεήμων (eleḗmōn) Ancient Greek -συνος (-sunos) Ancient Greek -σῠ́νη (-sŭ́nē) Ancient Greek ἐλεημοσύνη (eleēmosúnē)bor. Late Latin eleēmosyna Vulgar Latin *alēmosynabor. Proto-West Germanic *alemōsinā Old English ælmesse Middle English almesse English alms From Middle English almes, almesse, ælmesse, from Old English ælmesse, from Proto-West Germanic *alemōsinā, a borrowing from Vulgar Latin *alemosyna, from Late Latin eleēmosyna, from Ancient Greek ἐλεημοσύνη (eleēmosúnē, “alms”), from ἐλεέω (eleéō, “I have mercy”), from ἔλεος (éleos, “mercy”). Compare Saterland Frisian Aalmoose (“alms”), Dutch aalmoes (“alms”), German Almosen (“alms”), Catalan almoina (“alms”), Portuguese esmola (“alms”), Galician esmola (“alms”), Spanish limosna (“alms”), French aumône (“alms”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- allms
- almms
- almss
- alsm
- amls
- lams
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of alms - 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
How do you spell "alms"?
What does "alms" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "alms"?
How do you pronounce "alms"?
What is the origin of the word "alms"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "alms", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).