Altair
/ˈɔːltɛə(ɹ)/
"altair" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Altair” is uncommon English (frequency #53,367 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,367
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The brightest star in the constellation Aquila; Alpha (α) Aquilae. It is the twelfth brightest star in the sky, and forms one corner of the Summer Triangle.
Corpus desk
Index EN-altair · Altair · English
Altair · rank #53,367 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #53,367
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH Aloysius
Nearest frequency peer: Aloysius (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “Altair”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Akita
Akita
46,638 corpus weight
- Aloysius
Aloysius
46,635 corpus weight
- Altair
Altair
46,634 corpus weight
- Anbar
Anbar
46,633 corpus weight
- Anglian
Anglian
46,632 corpus weight
- annul
annul
46,630 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Altair” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Altair |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈɔːltɛə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #53,367 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Altair” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Altair is uncommon English at frequency #53,367 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /ˈɔːltɛə(ɹ)/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The brightest star in the constellation Aquila; Alpha (α) Aquilae. It is the twelfth brightest star in the sky, and forms one corner of the Summer Triangle.".
Altair doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the Arabic اَلنَّسْر اَلطَّائِر (an-nasr aṭ-ṭāʔir, “the flying eagle”), from نَسْر (nasr, “eagle”) + طَائِر (ṭāʔir, “flying”). The correct English form is Altair, spelled A-L-T-A-I-R.
Definition
- 1The brightest star in the constellation Aquila; Alpha (α) Aquilae. It is the twelfth brightest star in the sky, and forms one corner of the Summer Triangle.
Etymology
From the Arabic اَلنَّسْر اَلطَّائِر (an-nasr aṭ-ṭāʔir, “the flying eagle”), from نَسْر (nasr, “eagle”) + طَائِر (ṭāʔir, “flying”).
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Altair", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).