Ann
/æn/
"ann" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Ann” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,923 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #3,923
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A female given name from Hebrew.
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 | Ann |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /æn/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #3,923 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Ann” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Ann is 3 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /æn/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,923 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A female given name from Hebrew.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for Ann in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "at", "AP", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Latin Anna chiefly in reference to St Anne the apocryphal mother of Mary mother of Jesus but appearing in the Vulgate in reference to Anna the Prophetess, from Koine Greek Ἄννα (Ánna, “Anna”) in the New Testament, from Hebrew חַנָּה (Ḥannâ, “Hanna… The correct English form is Ann, spelled A-N-N.
Definition
- 1A female given name from Hebrew.
Etymology
From Late Latin Anna chiefly in reference to St Anne the apocryphal mother of Mary mother of Jesus but appearing in the Vulgate in reference to Anna the Prophetess, from Koine Greek Ἄννα (Ánna, “Anna”) in the New Testament, from Hebrew חַנָּה (Ḥannâ, “Hannah”), from חַנָּה (ḥannâ, “grace, gracious, graced with child”). Occasionally reborrowed from languages who adopted the name from English. Very infrequently from Estonian abbreviation of Anna instead. Doublet of Ana, Anna, Anne, and Hannah.
This word in other languages
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 “Ann”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-N-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /æn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “as” - see the side-by-side comparison. Ann vs as
- 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.