angel
/ˈeɪn.d͡ʒl̩/
"angel" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“angel” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,277 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,277
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An incorporeal and holy or semidivine messenger from a deity or other divine entity, traditionally depicted as a youthful, winged figure in flowing robes.
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 | angel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈeɪn.d͡ʒl̩/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #3,277 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “angel” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for angel is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈeɪn.d͡ʒl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,277 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for angel, with forms such as "agnel", "anegl", and "anggel". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Anne", "ante", "axel", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Two Baroque angels from southern Germany, from the mid-18th century From Middle English aungel, angel, from Old English anġel, either a modification of enġel after its etymon Latin angelus (through the intermediate of Proto-West Germanic *angil) or a reborr… The correct English form is angel, spelled A-N-G-E-L.
Definition
- 1An incorporeal and holy or semidivine messenger from a deity or other divine entity, traditionally depicted as a youthful, winged figure in flowing robes.
- 2An incorporeal and holy or semidivine messenger from a deity or other divine entity, traditionally depicted as a youthful, winged figure in flowing robes.
- 3A person having qualities traditionally attributed to angels.
- 4A person having qualities traditionally attributed to angels.
- 5A person having qualities traditionally attributed to angels.
- 6Attendant spirit; genius; demon.
- 7An official (a bishop, or sometimes a minister) who heads a Christian church, especially a Catholic Apostolic Church.
- 8An English gold coin, bearing the figure of the archangel Michael, circulated between the 15th and 17th centuries, and varying in value from six shillings and eightpence to ten shillings.
- 9An altitude, measured in thousands of feet.
- 10An unidentified flying object detected by air traffic control radar.
- 11someone that funds
- 12someone that funds
Etymology
Two Baroque angels from southern Germany, from the mid-18th century From Middle English aungel, angel, from Old English anġel, either a modification of enġel after its etymon Latin angelus (through the intermediate of Proto-West Germanic *angil) or a reborrowing from the Latin, which is in turn from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger”); later reinforced by Anglo-Norman angele, angel, from the same Latin source. The religious sense of the Greek word first appeared in the Septuagint as a translation of the Hebrew word מַלְאָךְ (malʾāḵ, “messenger”) or מַלְאָךְ יהוה (malʾāḵ YHWH, “messenger of YHWH”). Doublet of Angelus. Use of the term in some churches to refer to a church official derives from interpreting the "angels" of the Seven churches of Asia in Revelation as being bishops or ministers rather than angelic beings.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: agnel,anegl,anggel,anngel,nagel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of angel - 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 “angel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-N-G-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈeɪn.d͡ʒl̩/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Anne” - see the side-by-side comparison. angel vs Anne
- 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.