ass
/æs/
"ass" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ass” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,065 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,065
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of several species of horse-like animals, especially Equus asinus, the domesticated of which are used as beasts of burden.
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
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ass is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /æs/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,065 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “ass”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /æs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “at” - see the side-by-side comparison. ass vs at
- 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.