America
/əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kə/
"america" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“America” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #603 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #603
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A supercontinent consisting of North America, Central America and South America regarded as a whole; in full, the Americas.
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 | America |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #603 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “America” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for America is 7 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kə/. Corpus data places it at rank #603 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for America, with forms such as "aemrica", "ameirca", and "amercia". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "American", "Americas", "Americana", 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 *h₃emh₃- Proto-Germanic *amalą Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs Proto-Celtic *rīxsbor. Proto-Germanic *rīks Proto-Germanic *Amalarīksder. Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- Proto-Indo-… The correct English form is America, spelled A-M-E-R-I-C-A.
Definition
- 1A supercontinent consisting of North America, Central America and South America regarded as a whole; in full, the Americas.
- 2A country in North America; in full, United States of America.
- 3A female given name.
- 4A town in Limburg, Netherlands.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃emh₃- Proto-Germanic *amalą Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs Proto-Celtic *rīxsbor. Proto-Germanic *rīks Proto-Germanic *Amalarīksder. Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos Proto-Indo-European *tḱóymos Proto-Germanic *haimaz ▲ Proto-Germanic *rīks Proto-Germanic *Haimarīksder.? Italian Amerigoder. New Latin Americalbor. English America Learned borrowing from New Latin America, feminine Latinized form of the Italian first name of Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). Amerigo is an Italian name derived from a Germanic language and is etymologically related to Henry and Emmerich. The earliest known use of America for the (South) American continent is on a 1507 map by Martin Waldseemüller; see Naming of the Americas for more. Although this is the most widely accepted derivation, it has also been suggested that it could originate from the name of the Amerrisque mountains in Nicaragua (from Mayan), and another disputed theory is that it derives from the surname of Richard Amerike (1440–1503), whose surname is an anglicised form of Welsh ap Meurig (“son of Meurig”), from Old Welsh Mouric, which could be a rendition of Latin Mauritius (compare Maurice).
Synonyms
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aemrica,ameirca,amercia,ameriac,americca,amerrica,ammerica,amreica,maerica
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of America - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "America"?
What does "America" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "America"?
How do you pronounce "America"?
What is the origin of the word "America"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “America”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-M-E-R-I-C-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “American” - see the side-by-side comparison. America vs American
- 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.