are
/ə(ɹ)/
"are" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“are” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #19 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #19
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - second-person singular simple present of be
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 | 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) |
Where “are” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for are is 3 letters long, classified as a verb, 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.
Zero misspellings are on record for are in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "at", "aw", 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 *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… The correct English form is are, spelled A-R-E.
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
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 “are”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ə(ɹ)/ (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. are 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.