async

adj

"async" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“async” is uncommon English (frequency #70,466 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,466
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Abbreviation of asynchronous.

Corpus desk

Index EN-async · async · English

async · rank #70,466 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,466
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH ascribes

Nearest frequency peer: ascribes (-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 “async”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “async” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for async
PropertyValue
Headwordasync
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters5
Frequency rank#70,466
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “async” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).asyncfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “ascribes” (#70,464), “ardour” (#70,463), “arbour” (#70,462). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “async” is #70,466. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

async is uncommon English at frequency #70,466 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Abbreviation of asynchronous.".

No misspelling variants are generated for async in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is async, spelled A-S-Y-N-C.

Definition

  1. 1
    Abbreviation of asynchronous.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how async appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The tradeoff is that the first time an async event causes a scheduling point, it incurs the thread creation overhead that it has avoided.

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 "async"?
"async" is spelled A-S-Y-N-C.
What does "async" mean?
As an adjective, "async" means: Abbreviation of asynchronous.
What language does "async" come from?
"async" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "async", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list