among

Name: among, English Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

/əˈmʌŋ/

//əˈmʌŋ// prep

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“among” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #486. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#486
frequency rank, English: 3,931
“A” headwords: 7
tracked misspellings: 20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).

Corpus desk

Index EN-among · among · English

among · rank #486 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

FREQ-CORE #486
LEN-MID 5 letters
VOW-2 2 vowels
CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
VAR-MID 7 variants
BOOK-MID 3,931
PHOTO-FINISH whether

Nearest frequency peer: whether (-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.

third

99,518
turn

99,517
whether

99,516
among

99,515
check

99,514
development

99,513

What this shows “among” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

among vs Ang

40% similar

among vs Amos

40% similar

among vs Avon

40% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for among
Property	Value
Headword	among
Language	English
Part of speech	Preposition
IPA	/əˈmʌŋ/
Letters	5
Frequency rank	#486
Misspellings tracked	7
Confusable pairs	20
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “among”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).amonglands here:

#486

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “whether” (#485), “check” (#487), “turn” (#484). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “among” is #486. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around among (IPA /əˈmʌŋ/), apreposition. Corpus frequency is #486 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for among, with forms such as "ammong", "amnog", and "amogn". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Ang", "Amos", "Avon", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Old English on Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Germanic *ga- Proto-West Germanic *ga- Old English ġe- Old English mang Old English ġemang Old English onġemang Old English amang Middle English among English among The pre… The correct English form is among, spelled A-M-O-N-G.

Definition

1
Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).
2
Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).
3
Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).
4
Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).
5
Of an event or a fact.
6
Of an event or a fact.
7
Of an event or a fact.
8
Of an event or a fact.
9
Of an event or a fact.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how among appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

to put the cat among the pigeons
And Adam hyd him ſelf with his wyfe [Eve], from the preſence of yͤ LORDE God amonge the trees of the garden.

Etymology

Etymology tree Old English on Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Germanic *ga- Proto-West Germanic *ga- Old English ġe- Old English mang Old English ġemang Old English onġemang Old English amang Middle English among English among The preposition is derived from Middle English among, amang, amange, amonge (“in the presence of, amid, among; in, within; between; during”), from Old English amang, onġemang (preposition), from on (“on, among, in”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂en- (“on, onto”)) + ġemang (“crowd; mixture”, noun) (from ġe- (prefix forming nouns denoting association or similarity) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by; near; with”)) + mang- (from mængan, mengan (“to mingle, mix”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *menk- (“to knead; to press”))). By surface analysis, a- (prefix meaning ‘at; in; on’) + mong (“crowd, throng; group”). The adverb is derived from Middle English among, amang (“accompanied by, along with, by the side of, in association with, together; all the while, continually; also, besides; at the same time; from time to time, occasionally; meanwhile; within”), from Old English onġemang (adverb): see further above. cognates * Dutch mank, maank (“among”) * German mang (“among”) (dialectal) * German Low German mank, manken (“among”) * Saterland Frisian monk, monken (“among”) * West Frisian mank (“among”)

Synonyms

amid amidst amongst

This word in other languages

entre(Español)parmi(Français)unter(Deutsch)entre(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

ammong
amnog
amogn
amongg
amonng
aomng
maong

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of among - 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.

Edit distance from "among"

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 "among"?

"among" is spelled A-M-O-N-G. The IPA pronunciation is /əˈmʌŋ/.

What does "among" mean?

As a preposition, "among" means: Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).

What words are commonly confused with "among"?

"among" is commonly confused with "Ang", "Amos", "Avon". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "among"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "among" is /əˈmʌŋ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What is the origin of the word "among"?

Is PlainSpell free to use?

Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "among", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

check#487 third#483 heart#491 taken#474

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

asked7 variants major7 variants phone7 variants won't7 variants