annul
/əˈnʌl/
"annul" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“annul” is uncommon English (frequency #53,371 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,371
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To formally revoke the validity of.
Corpus desk
Index EN-annul · annul · English
annul · rank #53,371 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #53,371
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH Anglian
Nearest frequency peer: Anglian (-2 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.
Long-tail ranks near “annul”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Altair
Altair
46,634 corpus weight
- Anbar
Anbar
46,633 corpus weight
- Anglian
Anglian
46,632 corpus weight
- annul
annul
46,630 corpus weight
- APG
APG
46,628 corpus weight
- aphorism
aphorism
46,627 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “annul” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | annul |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əˈnʌl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #53,371 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “annul” in English
Rare enough to double-check
annul is uncommon English at frequency #53,371 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /əˈnʌl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for annul in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English annullen, from Old French anuller, from Latin annullō (“annihilate, annul”), from ad (“to”) + nūllus (“none, not any”). The correct English form is annul, spelled A-N-N-U-L.
Definition
- 1To formally revoke the validity of.
- 2To dissolve (a marital union) on the grounds that it is not valid.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how annul appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
If you ask how religion thus falls on the thorns and faces death, and in the very act annuls annihilation, I cannot explain the matter, for it is religion's secret, and to understand it you must yourself have been a religious man of the extremer type.
Etymology
From Middle English annullen, from Old French anuller, from Latin annullō (“annihilate, annul”), from ad (“to”) + nūllus (“none, not any”).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "annul", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).