asthma
/ˈasmə/
"asthma" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“asthma” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #10,650. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #10,650
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A long-term respiratory condition, in which the airways may unexpectedly and suddenly narrow, often in response to an allergen, cold air, exercise, or emotional stress. Symptoms include wheezing, s...
Corpus desk
Index EN-asthma · asthma · English
asthma · rank #10,650 · 9 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-MID #10,650
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH arose
Nearest frequency peer: arose (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “asthma”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- arcade
arcade
89,354 corpus weight
- Arlington
Arlington
89,353 corpus weight
- arose
arose
89,352 corpus weight
- asthma
asthma
89,351 corpus weight
- aurora
aurora
89,350 corpus weight
- bacterial
bacterial
89,348 corpus weight
What this shows “asthma” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | asthma |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈasmə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #10,650 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “asthma”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around asthma (IPA /ˈasmə/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #10,650 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A long-term respiratory condition, in which the airways may unexpectedly and suddenly narrow, often in response to an allergen, cold air, exercise, or emotional stress. Symptoms include wheezing, s...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for asthma, with forms such as "ashtma", "assthma", and "astham". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "ASTM", "Asha", "Asta", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English asma, asme, from Medieval Latin asthma, asma, from Ancient Greek ἆσθμα (âsthma, “laborious breathing, asthma”). The spelling was changed to add -th- in the 16th century to match the Greek etymological roots. The correct English form is asthma, spelled A-S-T-H-M-A.
Definition
- 1A long-term respiratory condition, in which the airways may unexpectedly and suddenly narrow, often in response to an allergen, cold air, exercise, or emotional stress. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how asthma appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
...but rheumatism is a vulgar complaint, and would sink even a ducal coronet—the very lowest people have it. I question if there is a workhouse in Great Britain exempt from it. Neither is there one free from asthma, and yet all the world knows a royal duke suffers from it as much as a coalheaver might do;...
"He kind of spat," said Piggy. "My auntie wouldn't let me blow on account of my asthma. He said you blew from down here." Piggy laid a hand on his jutting abdomen.
Etymology
From Middle English asma, asme, from Medieval Latin asthma, asma, from Ancient Greek ἆσθμα (âsthma, “laborious breathing, asthma”). The spelling was changed to add -th- in the 16th century to match the Greek etymological roots.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ashtma
- assthma
- astham
- asthhma
- asthmma
- astmha
- astthma
- atshma
- sathma
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of asthma - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "asthma", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).