at all costs
"at-all-costs" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“at all costs” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - As an absolute imperative; sparing no effort or expense
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | at all costs |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “at all costs” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for at all costs is 12 letters long, classified as an adverb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "As an absolute imperative; sparing no effort or expense".
at all costs doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is at all costs, spelled A-T- -A-L-L- -C-O-S-T-S.
Definition
- 1As an absolute imperative; sparing no effort or expense
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “at all costs”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-T- -A-L-L- -C-O-S-T-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.