ankle
/ˈæŋ.k(ə)l/
"ankle" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ankle” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,415 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,415
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The skeletal joint which connects the foot with the leg; the uppermost portion of the foot and lowermost portion of the leg, which contain this skeletal joint.
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 | ankle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈæŋ.k(ə)l/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,415 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ankle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ankle is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈæŋ.k(ə)l/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,415 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The skeletal joint which connects the foot with the leg; the uppermost portion of the foot and lowermost portion of the leg, which contain this skeletal joint.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for ankle, with forms such as "aknle", "ankel", and "ankkle". 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, "Anne", "axle", "ante", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eng- Proto-Germanic *-ulaz Proto-Germanic *ankulaz Proto-West Germanic *ankul Old English *ancol Middle English ancle English ankle From Middle English ankel, ancle, ankyll, from Old English ancol (compare anclēow (“ank… The correct English form is ankle, spelled A-N-K-L-E.
Definition
- 1The skeletal joint which connects the foot with the leg; the uppermost portion of the foot and lowermost portion of the leg, which contain this skeletal joint.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eng- Proto-Germanic *-ulaz Proto-Germanic *ankulaz Proto-West Germanic *ankul Old English *ancol Middle English ancle English ankle From Middle English ankel, ancle, ankyll, from Old English ancol (compare anclēow (“ankle”) > Modern English anclef, ancliff, ancley), from Proto-West Germanic *ankul, from Proto-Germanic *ankulaz (“ankle”); akin to Icelandic ökkla, ökli, Danish and Swedish ankel, Dutch enklaauw, enkel, German Enkel, Old Norse akka, Old Frisian anckel, and perhaps Old High German encha, ancha (“thigh, shin”), from the Proto-Germanic *ankijǭ (“ankle, joint”). Compare with Sanskrit अङ्ग (aṅga, “limb”), अङ्गुरि (aṅguri, “finger”), Latin angulus. Compare haunch and Greek prefix ἀγκυλο- (ankulo-, “joint, crooked, bent”). Doublet of angulus and angle.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aknle,ankel,ankkle,anklle,anlke,annkle,nakle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ankle - 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 "ankle"?
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Using “ankle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-N-K-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈæŋ.k(ə)l/ (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. ankle 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.