at first glance
"at-first-glance" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“at first glance” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - After only a superficial examination or review.
Corpus desk
Index EN-at-first-glance · at first glance · English
at first glance · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | at first glance |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “at first glance” in English
Rare enough to double-check
at first glance is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "After only a superficial examination or review.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for at first glance, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is at first glance, spelled A-T- -F-I-R-S-T- -G-L-A-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1After only a superficial examination or review.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how at first glance appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
At first glance it seems to be a reasonable idea. But we'll see.
At first glance, thinking well of yourself seems obviously preferable to thinking poorly of yourself. But the problem with […]
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.