among
/əˈmʌŋ/
"among" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“among” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #486 in English word frequency and used as a preposition.
- #486
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).
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 | among |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | /əˈmʌŋ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #486 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “among” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for among is 5 letters long, classified as a preposition, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈmʌŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #486 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).
- 2Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).
- 3Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).
- 4Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things).
- 5Of an event or a fact.
- 6Of an event or a fact.
- 7Of an event or a fact.
- 8Of an event or a fact.
- 9Of an event or a fact.
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”)
This word in other languages
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.
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 “among”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-M-O-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈmʌŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Ang” - see the side-by-side comparison. among vs Ang
- 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.