astonishment
/əˈstɒnɪʃmənt/
"astonishment" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“astonishment” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #34,386 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #34,386
- frequency rank, English
- 12
- letters
- 19
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The feeling or experience of being astonished; great surprise.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | astonishment |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈstɒnɪʃmənt/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #34,386 |
| Misspellings tracked | 19 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “astonishment” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for astonishment is 12 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈstɒnɪʃmənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #34,386 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 19 likely wrong-spelling variants for astonishment, with forms such as "asotnishment", "asstonishment", and "astnoishment". 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. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From astonish + -ment. The correct English form is astonishment, spelled A-S-T-O-N-I-S-H-M-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1The feeling or experience of being astonished; great surprise.
- 2Something very surprising.
- 3Loss of physical sensation; inability to move a part of the body.
- 4Loss of mental faculties, inability to think or use one's senses.
- 5Loss of composure or presence of mind.
Etymology
From astonish + -ment.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asotnishment,asstonishment,astnoishment,astoinshment,astonihsment,astonishemnt,astonishhment,astonishmennt,astonishmentt,astonishmetn,astonishmment,astonishmnet,astonismhent,astonisshment,astonnishment,astonsihment,asttonishment,atsonishment,satonishment
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of astonishment - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "astonishment"?
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Using “astonishment”
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-M-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈstɒnɪʃmənt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.