county
/ˈkaʊnti/
"county" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“county” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #650 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #650
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The land ruled by a count or a countess.
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 | county |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkaʊnti/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #650 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “county” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for county is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkaʊnti/. Corpus data places it at rank #650 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for county, with forms such as "ccounty", "conuty", and "counnty". 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 19 confusable-pair relationships, "cunt", "cuny", "court", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English countee, counte, conte, from Anglo-Norman counté, Old French conté (French comté), from Latin comitātus (“jurisdiction of a count”), from comes (“count, earl”). Cognate with Spanish condado (“county”) and Italian contea (“county”). Doubl… The correct English form is county, spelled C-O-U-N-T-Y.
Definition
- 1The land ruled by a count or a countess.
- 2An administrative or geographical region of various countries, including Bhutan, Canada, China, Croatia, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and 47 of the 50 United States (excluding Alaska, Connecticut, and Louisiana).
- 3A definitive geographic region, without direct administrative functions.
- 4A jail operated by a county government.
Etymology
From Middle English countee, counte, conte, from Anglo-Norman counté, Old French conté (French comté), from Latin comitātus (“jurisdiction of a count”), from comes (“count, earl”). Cognate with Spanish condado (“county”) and Italian contea (“county”). Doublet of comitatus, borrowed directly from Latin. Mostly displaced native Old English sċīr, whence Modern English shire.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccounty,conuty,counnty,countty,countyy,counyt,coutny,cuonty,ocunty
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of county - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "county"?
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Using “county”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-U-N-T-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkaʊnti/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cunt” - see the side-by-side comparison. county vs cunt
- 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.