by all means
"by-all-means" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“by all means” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a prep_phrase - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Emphatically yes; certainly; definitely.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | by all means |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “by all means” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for by all means is 12 letters long, classified as a prep_phrase. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for by all means in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is by all means, spelled B-Y- -A-L-L- -M-E-A-N-S.
Definition
- 1Emphatically yes; certainly; definitely.
- 2Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see by, all, means.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “by all means”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-Y- -A-L-L- -M-E-A-N-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.