day
/deɪ̯/
"day" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“day” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #120 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #120
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The time when the Sun is above the horizon and it lights the sky.
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 | day |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /deɪ̯/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #120 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “day” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for day is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /deɪ̯/. Corpus data places it at rank #120 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for day, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "do", "Dr", "de", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ-? Proto-Germanic *dagaz Proto-West Germanic *dag Old English dæġ Middle English day English day Inherited from Middle English day, from Old English dæġ, from Proto-West Germanic *dag, from Proto-Germanic *dagaz (“d… The correct English form is day, spelled D-A-Y.
Definition
- 1The time when the Sun is above the horizon and it lights the sky.
- 2A period of time equal or almost equal to a full day-night cycle, being 24 hours long.
- 3A period of time equal or almost equal to a full day-night cycle, being 24 hours long.
- 4A period of time equal or almost equal to a full day-night cycle, being 24 hours long.
- 5A 24-hour period beginning at 6am or sunrise.
- 6A period of time between two set times which mark the beginning and the end of day in a calendar, such as from midnight to the following midnight or (Judaism) from nightfall to the following nightfall.
- 7The rotational period of a planet.
- 8The part of a day period which one spends at one’s job, school, etc.
- 9An observance lasting for a day, such as an annual holiday.
- 10A specified time or period; time, considered with reference to the existence or prominence of a person or thing; age; time; era.
- 11A period of contention of a day or less.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ-? Proto-Germanic *dagaz Proto-West Germanic *dag Old English dæġ Middle English day English day Inherited from Middle English day, from Old English dæġ, from Proto-West Germanic *dag, from Proto-Germanic *dagaz (“day”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”). Cognates Cognate with Scots day, dei, dey, dy (“day”), Yola daie, dei, dey, die (“day”), North Frisian dai, doi, däi (“day”), Saterland Frisian Dai (“day”), West Frisian dei (“day”), Bavarian Dåg, Tåg (“day”), Central Franconian Daach (“day”), Cimbrian tag, tage (“day”), Dutch dag, dagge (“day”), German Tag (“day”), German Low German Dag, Dagg (“day”), Limburgish Daach, Daag (“day”), Luxembourgish Dag (“day”), Mòcheno ta (“day”), Vilamovian taog (“day”), West Flemish dag (“day”), Yiddish טאָג (tog, “day”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish dag (“day”), Faroese and Icelandic dagur (“day”), Norn dagh (“day”), Crimean Gothic tag (“day”), Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (dags, “day”), Vandalic *dag- (“day”); also Breton deviñ (“to burn”), Cornish dewi (“to kindle”), Irish daigh (“fire, flame”), dóigh (“to burn, singe; sear, scorch”), Manx daah (“to scorch, singe; to cauterize”), Scottish Gaelic dòth (“scorch, singe; burn”), Welsh deifio (“to scorch, singe”), Latin foveō (“to warm, keep warm”), Greek τέφρα (téfra, “ash, cinder”), Albanian dhez, ndez (“to kindle, light”), Old Prussian dagis (“summer”), Armenian հրդեհ (hrdeh, “fire”), Sanskrit दह् (dah, “to burn, consume by fire, scorch, roast”).
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); 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 “day”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-A-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /deɪ̯/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “do” - see the side-by-side comparison. day vs do
- 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.