assail
/əˈseɪl/
"assail" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“assail” is uncommon English (frequency #83,008 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #83,008
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To attack with harsh words or violent force (also figuratively).
Corpus desk
Index EN-assail · assail · English
assail · rank #83,008 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #83,008
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH assented
Nearest frequency peer: assented (+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.
Long-tail ranks near “assail”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- arcanum
arcanum
16,997 corpus weight
- Armagnac
Armagnac
16,996 corpus weight
- Arslan
Arslan
16,995 corpus weight
- assail
assail
16,993 corpus weight
- assented
assented
16,992 corpus weight
- attitudinal
attitudinal
16,990 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “assail” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | assail |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əˈseɪl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #83,008 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “assail” in English
Rare enough to double-check
assail is uncommon English at frequency #83,008 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /əˈseɪl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To attack with harsh words or violent force (also figuratively).".
No misspelling variants are generated for assail in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English assailen, from Old French assaillir, assalir, from Late Latin assalīre, from Latin ad (“at, towards”) + salīre (“jump”). See also assault. The correct English form is assail, spelled A-S-S-A-I-L.
Definition
- 1To attack with harsh words or violent force (also figuratively).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how assail appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Muggers assailed them as they entered an alley.
Our ears were assailed by her joyous efforts on her new saxophone.
Etymology
From Middle English assailen, from Old French assaillir, assalir, from Late Latin assalīre, from Latin ad (“at, towards”) + salīre (“jump”). See also assault.
Synonyms
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "assail", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).