are
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
3 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "are", 3-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "are" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "are" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
are is aEnglishverb. It means: second-person singular simple present of be Pronounced /ə(ɹ)/. It ranks #19 in English word frequency. Often confused with as and at.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | are |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for are is 3 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #19 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for are in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "at", "aw", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti Proto-Germanic *izi Proto-Germanic *arun Proto-West Germanic *wāʀun Old English earon Middle English aren English are From Middle English aren, from Old English earun, earon (“are”), rein… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is are, spelled A-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1second-person singular simple present of be
- 2first-person plural simple present of be
- 3second-person plural simple present of be
- 4third-person plural simple present of be
- 5present of be
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti Proto-Germanic *izi Proto-Germanic *arun Proto-West Germanic *wāʀun Old English earon Middle English aren English are From Middle English aren, from Old English earun, earon (“are”), reinforced by Old Norse plural forms in er- (displacing alternative Old English sind and bēoþ), from Proto-Germanic *arun (“(they) are”), from Proto-Germanic *esi/*izi (a form of Proto-Germanic *wesaną (“to be”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti (“is”). Cognate with Old Norse eru (“(they) are”) (> Icelandic eru (“(they) are”), Swedish äro (“(they) are”), Danish er (“(they) are”)), Old English eart (“(thou) art”). More at art.
Synonyms
Frequency rank: #19 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: