ayu
/ɑːjuː/
"ayu" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ayu” is uncommon English (frequency #69,657 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #69,657
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sweetfish, an amphidromous fish of East Asia, the only member of its genus and family, Plecoglossus altivelis, named and prized for its sweet-tasting flesh. It is a game fish and is also subject ...
Corpus desk
Index EN-ayu · ayu · English
ayu · rank #69,657 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #69,657
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH axially
Nearest frequency peer: axially (-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 “ayu”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Astin
Astin
30,349 corpus weight
- autoclave
autoclave
30,346 corpus weight
- axially
axially
30,345 corpus weight
- ayu
ayu
30,344 corpus weight
- Babington
Babington
30,342 corpus weight
- Bagan
Bagan
30,339 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “ayu” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ayu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɑːjuː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #69,657 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ayu” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ayu is uncommon English at frequency #69,657 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɑːjuː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A sweetfish, an amphidromous fish of East Asia, the only member of its genus and family, Plecoglossus altivelis, named and prized for its sweet-tasting flesh. It is a game fish and is also subject ...".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ayu, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Japanese 鮎 (ayu, “sweetfish”). The correct English form is ayu, spelled A-Y-U.
Definition
- 1A sweetfish, an amphidromous fish of East Asia, the only member of its genus and family, Plecoglossus altivelis, named and prized for its sweet-tasting flesh. It is a game fish and is also subject to extensive aquaculture.
Etymology
From Japanese 鮎 (ayu, “sweetfish”).
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 "ayu", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).