automobile
/ˈɔː.tə.məˌbiːl/
"automobile" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“automobile” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,772 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,772
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A type of motor vehicle designed to move on the ground under its own stored power and intended to carry a driver, a small number of additional passengers, and a very limited amount of other load.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | automobile |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɔː.tə.məˌbiːl/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #7,772 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “automobile” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for automobile is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɔː.tə.məˌbiːl/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,772 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A type of motor vehicle designed to move on the ground under its own stored power and intended to carry a driver, a small number of additional passengers, and a very limited amount of other load.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for automobile, with forms such as "atuomobile", "auotmobile", and "autmoobile". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "automotive", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder.? Proto-Indo-European *sóder.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder. Ancient Greek αὖ (aû) Ancient Greek τόν (tón)? Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós) Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-)lbor. French auto- Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁-d… The correct English form is automobile, spelled A-U-T-O-M-O-B-I-L-E.
Definition
- 1A type of motor vehicle designed to move on the ground under its own stored power and intended to carry a driver, a small number of additional passengers, and a very limited amount of other load.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder.? Proto-Indo-European *sóder.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewder. Ancient Greek αὖ (aû) Ancient Greek τόν (tón)? Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós) Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-)lbor. French auto- Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁-der. Proto-Italic *moweō Latin moveō Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin mōbilislbor. French mobile French automobilebor. English automobile From French automobile, from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, “self”) + French mobile (“moving”), from Latin mōbilis (“movable”), equivalent to auto- (“self”) + mobile.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: atuomobile,auotmobile,autmoobile,automboile,autommobile,automobbile,automobiel,automobille,automoblie,automoible,autoombile,auttomobile,uatomobile
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of automobile - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "automobile"?
What does "automobile" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "automobile"?
How do you pronounce "automobile"?
What is the origin of the word "automobile"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “automobile”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-U-T-O-M-O-B-I-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɔː.tə.məˌbiːl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “automotive” - see the side-by-side comparison. automobile vs automotive
- 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.