astonishing
/əˈstɒnɪʃɪŋ/
"astonishing" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“astonishing” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,648 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #11,648
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Causing astonishment.
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 | astonishing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /əˈstɒnɪʃɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #11,648 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “astonishing” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for astonishing is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈstɒnɪʃɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,648 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Causing astonishment.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for astonishing, with forms such as "asotnishing", "asstonishing", and "astnoishing". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "astonishingly", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is astonishing, spelled A-S-T-O-N-I-S-H-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Causing astonishment.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asotnishing,asstonishing,astnoishing,astoinshing,astonihsing,astonishhing,astonishign,astonishingg,astonishinng,astonishnig,astonisihng,astonisshing,astonnishing,astonsihing,asttonishing,atsonishing,satonishing
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of astonishing - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “astonishing”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-S-T-O-N-I-S-H-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈstɒnɪʃɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “astonishingly” - see the side-by-side comparison. astonishing vs astonishingly
- 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.