also
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "also", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "also" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "also" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
also is anEnglishadv. It means: In addition; besides; as well; further; too. Pronounced /ˈɔːl.səʊ/. It ranks #70 in English word frequency. Often confused with as and ao.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | also |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adv |
| IPA | /ˈɔːl.səʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #70 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for also is 4 letters long, classified as anadv, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɔːl.səʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #70 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for also, with forms such as "allso", "alos", and "alsso". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "ao", "ask", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂elnós Proto-Germanic *allaz Proto-West Germanic *all Proto-Indo-European *swéder.? Proto-Germanic *swa Proto-West Germanic *swā Proto-West Germanic *allswā Old English eallswā Middle Engl… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is also, spelled A-L-S-O, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1In addition; besides; as well; further; too.
- 2To the same degree or extent; so, as.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂elnós Proto-Germanic *allaz Proto-West Germanic *all Proto-Indo-European *swéder.? Proto-Germanic *swa Proto-West Germanic *swā Proto-West Germanic *allswā Old English eallswā Middle English also English also From Middle English also, alswo, alswa (also als(e), as, whence English as), from Old English eallswā (“just like, also”), from Proto-West Germanic *allswā, equivalent to all + so. Cognate with Scots alsa, alswa (“also, even so, in the same way, as, as well”), Saterland Frisian also (“accordingly, therefore, thus”), West Frisian alsa (“so, just so, even so, thus”), Old Saxon alsō (“similarly, as if, just as, when”), Dutch alzo (“so, thus”), German also (“so, thus”), Danish altså (“so”), Norwegian Bokmål altså (“so, therefore, accordingly, thus”), Norwegian Nynorsk altso (“so, accordingly, therefore, thus”), Swedish alltså (“so, therefore, accordingly, thus, then”). Doublet of as. More at all, so.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: allso,alos,alsso,aslo,laso
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for also
Misspelling Variants of "also"
Frequency rank: #70 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: