attorney
/əˈtɜː(ɹ)ni/
"attorney" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“attorney” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,060 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,060
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A lawyer; one who advises or represents others in legal matters as a profession.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | attorney |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈtɜː(ɹ)ni/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #2,060 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “attorney” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for attorney is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈtɜː(ɹ)ni/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,060 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for attorney, with forms such as "atorney", "atotrney", and "attonrey". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English attourne, from Old French atorné, past participle of atorner, atourner, aturner (“to attorn”), in the sense of "one appointed or constituted". The correct English form is attorney, spelled A-T-T-O-R-N-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A lawyer; one who advises or represents others in legal matters as a profession.
- 2An agent or representative authorized to act on someone else's behalf in accordance with that person's instructions.
- 3One such who practised in the courts of the common law.
- 4A solicitor.
- 5An honorific given to lawyers and notaries public, or those holders by profession who also do other jobs. Usually capitalized or abbreviated as Atty.
- 6Clusia spp.
- 7A prosecutor.
Etymology
From Middle English attourne, from Old French atorné, past participle of atorner, atourner, aturner (“to attorn”), in the sense of "one appointed or constituted".
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: atorney,atotrney,attonrey,attoreny,attorneyy,attornney,attornye,attorrney,attroney,tatorney
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of attorney - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “attorney”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-T-T-O-R-N-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈtɜː(ɹ)ni/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.