approach
/əˈpɹəʊt͡ʃ/
"approach" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“approach” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,241 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #1,241
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To come or go near, in place or time; to move toward; to advance nearer; to draw nigh.
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 | approach |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əˈpɹəʊt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #1,241 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “approach” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for approach is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈpɹəʊt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,241 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for approach, with forms such as "apporach", "appraoch", and "approacch". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "approaches", "approached", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English aprochen, borrowed from Old French aprochier (modern French approcher), from Late Latin appropiāre, a verb based on Latin prope (“near”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (a variant of *per- (“before, in front; first”)) + *-kʷe … The correct English form is approach, spelled A-P-P-R-O-A-C-H.
Definition
- 1To come or go near, in place or time; to move toward; to advance nearer; to draw nigh.
- 2To play an approach shot.
- 3Used intransitively, followed by to: to draw near (to someone or something); to make advances; to approximate or become almost equal.
- 4Of an immovable object or a number of such objects: to be positioned as to (notionally) appear to be moving towards (a place).
- 5To move toward (someone or something) in place, time, character, or value; to draw nearer to.
- 6To bring (something) near something else; to cause (something) to draw near.
- 7Used when defining limits, preceded by as: To become arbitrarily close to some value, be it a number, vector or infinity and have an effect on another value.
- 8To attempt to make (a policy) or solve (a problem).
- 9To bring up or propose to (someone) an idea, question, request, etc.
- 10To have sexual intercourse with (someone).
- 11To take approaches to (a place); to move towards (a place) by using covered roads, trenches, or other works.
Etymology
From Middle English aprochen, borrowed from Old French aprochier (modern French approcher), from Late Latin appropiāre, a verb based on Latin prope (“near”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (a variant of *per- (“before, in front; first”)) + *-kʷe (“suffix forming distributives from interrogatives”)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apporach,appraoch,approacch,approachh,approahc,approcah,apprroach,aproach,aprpoach,paproach
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of approach - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “approach”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-P-P-R-O-A-C-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈpɹəʊt͡ʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “approaches” - see the side-by-side comparison. approach vs approaches
- 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.