Athabasca
"athabasca" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Athabasca” is uncommon English (frequency #61,288 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,288
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A lake in Alberta, Canada.
Corpus desk
Index EN-athabasca · Athabasca · English
Athabasca · rank #61,288 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #61,288
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH Aswan
Nearest frequency peer: Aswan (-1 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 “Athabasca”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- aryl
aryl
38,719 corpus weight
- Asano
Asano
38,718 corpus weight
- Asura
Asura
38,715 corpus weight
- Aswan
Aswan
38,714 corpus weight
- Athabasca
Athabasca
38,713 corpus weight
- attentional
attentional
38,711 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “Athabasca” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Athabasca |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #61,288 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Athabasca” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Athabasca is uncommon English at frequency #61,288 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Athabasca has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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 Woods Cree/Cree Ahđapaskâw. Compare to Plains Cree ᐋᓂᐢᑯᐘᐢᑯᐢᑳᐤ (“there are many reeds”) or Cree ᐋᓂᐢᑯᐘᐢᑳᐤ (aaniskowaskaaw, “it is full of reeds”), from ᐋᓂᐢᑯᐘᐢᑿ (aaniskowaskwa, “reeds, bullrushes”). Doublet of Arthabaska, Quebec, from Abenaki awabaska (“p… The correct English form is Athabasca, spelled A-T-H-A-B-A-S-C-A.
Definition
- 1A lake in Alberta, Canada.
- 2A river in Alberta, Canada, which flows into Lake Athabasca.
- 3A town in Alberta, Canada, on the Athabasca River. Formerly "Athabasca Landing"
Etymology
From Woods Cree/Cree Ahđapaskâw. Compare to Plains Cree ᐋᓂᐢᑯᐘᐢᑯᐢᑳᐤ (“there are many reeds”) or Cree ᐋᓂᐢᑯᐘᐢᑳᐤ (aaniskowaskaaw, “it is full of reeds”), from ᐋᓂᐢᑯᐘᐢᑿ (aaniskowaskwa, “reeds, bullrushes”). Doublet of Arthabaska, Quebec, from Abenaki awabaska (“place of bushes and reeds”). The Cree name originally applied to the lake, and the river delta (the world's largest inland freshwater delta) and was borrowed into French and English by fur traders. The river was named by extension, and the town's name is clipping of "Athabasca Landing". The Cree name for the town is ᑲᐹᐏᓂᕁ (kapaawinihk, “portage, landing, disembarkation”).
Synonyms
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Athabasca", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).