astound
/əˈstaʊnd/
"astound" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“astound” is uncommon English (frequency #65,704 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,704
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To astonish, bewilder or dazzle.
Corpus desk
Index EN-astound · astound · English
astound · rank #65,704 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,704
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH Aventura
Nearest frequency peer: Aventura (+2 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 “astound”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- arista
arista
34,303 corpus weight
- Ashburton
Ashburton
34,300 corpus weight
- astound
astound
34,297 corpus weight
- Aventura
Aventura
34,295 corpus weight
- awk
awk
34,294 corpus weight
- Baffin
Baffin
34,291 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “astound” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | astound |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əˈstaʊnd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #65,704 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “astound” in English
Rare enough to double-check
astound is uncommon English at frequency #65,704 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /əˈstaʊnd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To astonish, bewilder or dazzle.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for astound in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English astouned, astoned, astuned, past participle of astounen, astonen, astunen (“to astonish”). More at astonish. The correct English form is astound, spelled A-S-T-O-U-N-D.
Definition
- 1To astonish, bewilder or dazzle.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how astound appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1637, John Milton, Comus, London: Humphrey Robinson, p. 8, These thoughts may startle well, but not astound The vertuous mind […]
The yell which Isaac raised at this unfeeling communication made the very vault to ring, and astounded the two Saracens so much that they let go their hold of the Jew.
Etymology
From Middle English astouned, astoned, astuned, past participle of astounen, astonen, astunen (“to astonish”). More at astonish.
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.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "astound", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).