alms
/ɑːmz/
"alms" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alms” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #33,114 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #33,114
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Something given to the poor as charity, such as money, clothing or food.
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) |
Where “alms” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for alms is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɑːmz/. Corpus data places it at rank #33,114 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.
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
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Using “alms”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-L-M-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɑːmz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “as” - see the side-by-side comparison. alms vs as
- 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.