con
/kɒn/
"con" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“con” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,434 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #4,434
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To study or examine carefully, especially in order to gain knowledge of; to learn, or learn by heart.
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 | con |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /kɒn/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #4,434 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “con” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for con is 3 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɒn/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,434 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for con, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CT", "CR", "cs", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Middle English connen English con Inherited from Middle English connen, inherited from Old English cunnan (“to know, know how”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kunnan (“recognize, know how”), inherited from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną (“to k… The correct English form is con, spelled C-O-N.
Definition
- 1To study or examine carefully, especially in order to gain knowledge of; to learn, or learn by heart.
- 2To know; understand; acknowledge.
Etymology
Etymology tree Middle English connen English con Inherited from Middle English connen, inherited from Old English cunnan (“to know, know how”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kunnan (“recognize, know how”), inherited from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną (“to know, know how”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”) Doublet of can.
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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Using “con”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɒn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “CT” - see the side-by-side comparison. con vs CT
- 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.