aloud
/əˈlaʊd/adverb, adjective
aloud is spelled A-L-O-U-D: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,731st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “allowed vs aloud” about 1,300 times a month (Google, United States). As an adverb, aloud means “With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in aloud?
| Letters | 5: A-L-O-U-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 3.2 times per million words; the 14,731st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is aloud?
Aloud appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,731st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce aloud?
- /əˈlaʊd/
Aloud has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-aloud.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with aloud
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: allowed (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with aloud?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as aloud.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: doula.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does aloud mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly.
Try speaking aloud rather than whispering.
- 2
Audibly, as opposed to silently/quietly.
speaking aloud rather than thinking thoughts privately
adjective
- 1
Spoken out loud.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Aloud in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense loudly:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | à voix haute, à haute voix, fort |
| German | laut |
| Portuguese | em voz alta |
| Spanish | en voz alta, públicamente, en alto, de viva voz |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does aloud come from?
From Middle English aloud, a loude (“aloud”), equivalent to a- + loud or a- + loude (“sound”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).