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PlainSpell

ash

/ˈæʃ/noun, verb, adverb

ash is spelled A-S-H: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,496th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ash means “The solid remains of a fire” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ash is ashes.

How many letters and syllables are in ash?

Letters3: A-S-H
Syllables1
In writing14 times per million words; the 5,496th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ash?

Ash appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,496th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ash?

  • /ˈæʃ/
  • [ˈæʃ]

Ash has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ash.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with ash?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as ash.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: sha.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ash

  • ashes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • ashing participle, present
  • ashed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ash mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The solid remains of a fire.

    The audience was more captivated by the growing ash at the end of his cigarette than by his words.

  2. 2

    The nonaqueous remains of a material subjected to any complete oxidation process.

  3. 3

    Fine particles from a volcano, volcanic ash.

  4. 4

    Human (or animal) remains after cremation.

    The urn containing his ashes was eventually removed to a closet.

  5. 5

    archaicMortal remains in general.

    Napoleon’s ashes are not yet extinguished, and we’re breathing in their sparks.

  6. 6

    The aftermath or remains of a catastrophe.

  7. 7

    A gray color, similar to that of the remains of a fire.

  8. 8

    The resultant remaining more stable patterns that emerge from the evolution of a soup or a similarly random pattern.

  9. 9

    A shade tree of the genus Fraxinus.

    The ash trees are dying off due to emerald ash borer.

  10. 10

    Any tree of certain species of other genera.

  11. 11

    The wood of this tree.

  12. 12

    The traditional name for the ae ligature (æ), as used in Old English.

  13. 13

    Alternative form of aush.

verb

  1. 1

    To reduce to a residue of ash. See ashing.

    I dried the extracted leather very slowly on the steam bath […] until the substance was dry enough to ash. […] I think that the discrepancy in the percentages of "total ash" by method No. 2 and No. 6 is due to this excessive heat required t

  2. 2

    AustraliaTo hit the end off (a burning cigar or cigarette).

  3. 3

    To mark (someone) with an ashen cross on the forehead to observe Ash Wednesday.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo cover newly-sown fields of crops with ashes.

    Last spring, after I planted, I took what ashes I have saved during the last year, and put on my corn […] . On harvesting I cut up the two rows which were not ashed (or twenty rods of them,) and set them apart from the others in stouts; and

adverb

  1. 1

    Abbreviation of as hell or as heck.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ash in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcendre (solid remains of a fire), frêne (wood), e dans l'a (ae ligature)
GermanAsche, Äsche (solid remains of a fire), Eschenholz (wood), veraschen (to reduce to a residue of ash), abaschen, aschen (to hit the end off of a burning cigar or…)
Portuguesecinzas (solid remains of a fire), freixo (wood)
Spanishceniza, favila (solid remains of a fire), fresno (wood)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does ash come from?

From Middle English aisshe, asche, ash, asshe, axe, eshe, esk, from Old English acse, asċe, axe, axse, æsċe, from Proto-West Germanic *askā, from Proto-Germanic *askǭ (“ash”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs- (“to be dry; to burn; hearth; ashes”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after ash