almshouse

noun

"almshouse" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“almshouse” is an uncommon English word, ranked #89,095 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#89,095
frequency rank, English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A building of residence for the poor, sick or elderly of a parish. Originally founded by the Church, and usually funded by charitable donations.

Key facts for almshouse
PropertyValue
Headwordalmshouse
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#89,095
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “almshouse” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). almshouse lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for almshouse is 9 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #89,095 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A building of residence for the poor, sick or elderly of a parish. Originally founded by the Church, and usually funded by charitable donations.".

almshouse doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English almeshous, almassehous, equivalent to alms + house. The correct English form is almshouse, spelled A-L-M-S-H-O-U-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A building of residence for the poor, sick or elderly of a parish. Originally founded by the Church, and usually funded by charitable donations.

Etymology

From Middle English almeshous, almassehous, equivalent to alms + house.

Synonyms

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); 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 "almshouse"?
"almshouse" is spelled A-L-M-S-H-O-U-S-E.
What does "almshouse" mean?
As a noun, "almshouse" means: A building of residence for the poor, sick or elderly of a parish. Originally founded by the Church, and usually funded by charitable donations.
What is the origin of the word "almshouse"?
From Middle English almeshous, almassehous, equivalent to alms + house. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “almshouse”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is A-L-M-S-H-O-U-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list