always
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "always", 6-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 "always" 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 "always" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
always is anEnglishadv. It means: At all times; throughout all time; since the beginning. Pronounced /ˈɔːl.weɪz/. It ranks #167 in English word frequency. Often confused with away and aways.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | always |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adv |
| IPA | /ˈɔːl.weɪz/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #167 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for always is 6 letters long, classified as anadv, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɔːl.weɪz/. Corpus data places it at rank #167 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for always, with forms such as "alawys", "allways", and "alwasy". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "away", "aways", "arrays", 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 Old English eall Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *wegaz Proto-West Germanic *weg Old English weġ Old English ealneġ Midd… 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 always, spelled A-L-W-A-Y-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1At all times; throughout all time; since the beginning.
- 2Constantly during a certain period, or regularly at stated intervals (opposed to sometimes or occasionally).
- 3if necessary, or if there is no better option; in any event.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂elnós Proto-Germanic *allaz Proto-West Germanic *all Old English eall Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *wegaz Proto-West Germanic *weg Old English weġ Old English ealneġ Middle English alwey Proto-Germanic *-as Proto-West Germanic *-as Old English -es Middle English -es Middle English alweyes English always From Middle English alweyes, alwayes, alweys, a variant of Middle English alwey, alway (“always”), from Old English ealneġ, ealne weġ (“always, perpetually”, literally “all the way, all the while, continuously”), from ealne + weġ (accusative case), equivalent to alway + -s. Cognate with Scots always (“always”), Low German allerwegens (“very often”, literally “all ways'”). More at all, way.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: alawys,allways,alwasy,alwayss,alwayys,alwways,alwyas,awlays,laways
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for always
Misspelling Variants of "always"
Frequency rank: #167 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: