aul

/aʊl/

//aʊl// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"aul" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“aul” is uncommon English (frequency #77,431 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#77,431
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A village encampment in the Caucasus, Central Asia or the Southern Urals.

Corpus desk

Index EN-aul · aul · English

aul · rank #77,431 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #77,431
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH Aubin

Nearest frequency peer: Aubin (-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 “aul”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for aul
PropertyValue
Headwordaul
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/aʊl/
Letters3
Frequency rank#77,431
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “aul” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).aulfalls in this rarity band:

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

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “Aubin” (#77,430), “automatons” (#77,432), “astrakhan” (#77,428). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “aul” is #77,431. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

aul is uncommon English at frequency #77,431 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /aʊl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A village encampment in the Caucasus, Central Asia or the Southern Urals.".

aul has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Russian ау́л (aúl), from West (Kypchak) Turkic awul, awïl; compare Karachay-Balkar ауул (awul), Bashkir ауыл (awıl), Kazakh ауыл (auyl) and Turkish ağıl. The correct English form is aul, spelled A-U-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    A village encampment in the Caucasus, Central Asia or the Southern Urals.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. His sorrel face, his long narrow eyes and dusty boots, where he goes on his travels and what really transpires inside the lonely hide tents Out There, among the auls, out in that wind, these are mysteries they don’t care to enter or touch.
  2. Bitter fighting took place for Gimry, the home both of Khadzhi-Murat and Shamil. A highway ran along here, which permitted us to bring up artillery and to subject the aul to preliminary bombardment. We did not fire at any specific target, but if even half of our thirteen hundred shells had landed there, there would have been only a heap of ruins in place…

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian ау́л (aúl), from West (Kypchak) Turkic awul, awïl; compare Karachay-Balkar ауул (awul), Bashkir ауыл (awıl), Kazakh ауыл (auyl) and Turkish ağıl.

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 "aul"?
"aul" is spelled A-U-L. The IPA pronunciation is /aʊl/.
What does "aul" mean?
As a noun, "aul" means: A village encampment in the Caucasus, Central Asia or the Southern Urals.
How do you pronounce "aul"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "aul" is /aʊl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "aul"?
Borrowed from Russian ау́л (aúl), from West (Kypchak) Turkic awul, awïl; compare Karachay-Balkar ауул (awul), Bashkir ауыл (awıl), Kazakh ауыл (auyl) and Turkish ağıl. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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 "aul", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ALJ#77,395BPH#77,476zep#77,361DLF#77,609

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list