ass
/æs/
"ass" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ass” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,065) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #1,065
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which are used as beasts of burden.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ass · ass · English
ass · rank #1,065 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,065
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH western
Nearest frequency peer: western (-1 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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “ass”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- text
text
98,939 corpus weight
- treatment
treatment
98,938 corpus weight
- western
western
98,937 corpus weight
- ass
ass
98,936 corpus weight
- beginning
beginning
98,935 corpus weight
- California
California
98,934 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “ass” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | ass |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /æs/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #1,065 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ass” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for ass is neighbouring look-alikes ("at", "aw", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /æs/. Frequency #1,065 among 3,931 “A” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
No misspelling variants are generated for ass in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "at", "aw", "AU", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English asse, from Old English assa, back-formed from assen (“she-ass”), from Celtic (compare Old Irish asan, Old Cornish asen), from Latin asinus. Displaced Old English esol, from Proto-West Germanic *asil, also a loanword from the same Latin w… The correct English form is ass, spelled A-S-S.
Definition
- 1Any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which are used as beasts of burden.
- 2A stupid or inconsiderate person.
- 3A compositor.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ass appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And Iesse tooke an asse laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by Dauid his sonne vnto Saul.
Thus the Aſſe having a peculiar mark of a croſſe made by a black liſt down his back, and another athwart, or at right angles down his ſhoulders; common opinion aſcribes this figure unto a peculiar ſignation; ſince that beaſt had the honour to bear our Saviour on his back.
Etymology
From Middle English asse, from Old English assa, back-formed from assen (“she-ass”), from Celtic (compare Old Irish asan, Old Cornish asen), from Latin asinus. Displaced Old English esol, from Proto-West Germanic *asil, also a loanword from the same Latin word. Sense “stupid person” from the animal's reputation for stubbornness, going back to antiquity (compare Latin asinus (“slow-witted person”)).
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ass", not the corpus desk frequency band.
What to do next
You've looked up "ass". Here's where to go from here.
- "ass" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "at". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #1,065 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "A" letter cohort. A–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.