draft
/dɹɑːft/
"draft" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“draft” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,438 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,438
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle.
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 | draft |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɹɑːft/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,438 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “draft” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for draft is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɹɑːft/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,438 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 24 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for draft, with forms such as "darft", "ddraft", and "drafft". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "draw", "drag", "dram", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: A phonetic spelling of draught (compare laughter), from Middle English draught, draght (“that which is pulled; that which is drawn up, a design”), from Old English *dreaht, *dræht, from Proto-West Germanic *drahti, *drahtu, from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz (“a … The correct English form is draft, spelled D-R-A-F-T.
Definition
- 1A current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle.
- 2The draw through a flue of gasses or smoke resulting from a combustion process.
- 3An act of drinking.
- 4The quantity of liquid (such as water, alcohol, or medicine) drunk in one swallow.
- 5A dose (of medicine, alcohol, etc.).
- 6Liquid, especially beer or other alcohol, drawn from a cask or keg rather than a bottle or can.
- 7The depth of water needed to float a particular ship; the depth from the waterline to the bottom of a vessel's hull; the depth of water drawn by a vessel.
- 8A version of a written work (such as a book or paper) or drawing.
- 9An unsent e-mail.
- 10A preliminary sketch or outline for a plan.
- 11An order for money to be paid; the document that states it: a cheque, note, bond, bill of exchange, money order, or IOU.
- 12Conscription; the system of forcing people to serve in the military.
- 13A person who has been drafted; a conscript or draftee.
- 14A system of forcing or convincing people to take an elected position.
- 15A system of assigning rookie players to professional sports teams.
- 16A style of play in collectible card games, where players select from a shared pool of cards.
- 17A quantity that is requisitioned or drawn out from a larger population.
- 18The pulling force (tension) on couplers and draft gear during a slack (stretched) condition.
- 19The bevel given to the pattern for a casting, so that it can be drawn from the sand without damaging the mould.
- 20The action or an act (especially of a beast of burden or vehicle) of pulling something along or back.
- 21The act of drawing in a net for fish.
- 22That which is drawn in; a catch; a haul.
- 23A small stream or tributary.
- 24A ravine or narrow valley, especially one through which a stream (at least intermittently) flows.
Etymology
A phonetic spelling of draught (compare laughter), from Middle English draught, draght (“that which is pulled; that which is drawn up, a design”), from Old English *dreaht, *dræht, from Proto-West Germanic *drahti, *drahtu, from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz (“a pulling, drawing”). Cognate with Dutch dracht, German Tracht, Icelandic dráttur. By surface analysis, draw + -t.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: darft,ddraft,drafft,draftt,dratf,drfat,drraft,rdaft
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of draft - 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
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Using “draft”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-R-A-F-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɹɑːft/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “draw” - see the side-by-side comparison. draft vs draw
- 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.