ayah
/ˈaɪ.ə/
"ayah" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ayah” is uncommon English (frequency #68,023 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #68,023
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A South Asian female servant, maid or nanny, historically, often one working for Europeans in South Asia.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ayah · ayah · English
ayah · rank #68,023 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #68,023
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH AWACS
Nearest frequency peer: AWACS (-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 “ayah”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
31,981 corpus weight
- autoplay
autoplay
31,980 corpus weight
- AWACS
AWACS
31,979 corpus weight
- ayah
ayah
31,978 corpus weight
- Aylmer
Aylmer
31,977 corpus weight
- Bache
Bache
31,975 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “ayah” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ayah |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈaɪ.ə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #68,023 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ayah” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ayah is uncommon English at frequency #68,023 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈaɪ.ə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A South Asian female servant, maid or nanny, historically, often one working for Europeans in South Asia.".
ayah has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From various Indian languages (e.g. Hindi आया (āyā, “dry nurse, nanny”)), from Portuguese aia (“nurse, governess”), from Latin avia (“grandmother”). The correct English form is ayah, spelled A-Y-A-H.
Definition
- 1A South Asian female servant, maid or nanny, historically, often one working for Europeans in South Asia.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ayah appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
She manufactured the Station scandal, and talked to her ayah.
[…] a cot of iron had to be manufactured for [Bhim] after he had demolished two wooden cribs with a lusty kick of his foot; and a succession of bruised ayahs had finally to be replaced by a male attendant, a former Hastinapur all-in wrestling champion.
Etymology
From various Indian languages (e.g. Hindi आया (āyā, “dry nurse, nanny”)), from Portuguese aia (“nurse, governess”), from Latin avia (“grandmother”).
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 "ayah", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).