alt
/ɔːlt/
"alt" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“alt” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,434 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,434
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of a voice or instrument, high pitch; especially, the octave above the top line of the treble stave.
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 | alt |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɔːlt/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #9,434 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “alt” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for alt is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɔːlt/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,434 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
alt has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "at", "an", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin altus (“high”). Doublet of old and alto. The correct English form is alt, spelled A-L-T.
Definition
- 1Of a voice or instrument, high pitch; especially, the octave above the top line of the treble stave.
- 2A state of excitement, a heightened emotional condition.
Etymology
From Latin altus (“high”). Doublet of old and alto.
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 “alt”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-L-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɔːlt/ (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. alt 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.