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PlainSpell

e

/iː/letter, number, noun, pronoun

e is spelled E: one letter and one syllable. It appears 191 times per million words in written English, the 531st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a letter, e means “The fifth letter of the English alphabet, called e and written in the Latin script” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in e?

Letters1: E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing191 times per million words; the 531st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is e?

E appears 191 times per million words in written English, the 531st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce e?

  • /iː/
  • /ɛ/
  • /iː/

As a noun (“The second semiquaver (sixteenth note) of a beat”): /ˈiː/.

E has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-e.ogg, En-us-e.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with e

Also written: ee.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of e

  • es plural
  • e's plural
  • ees plural
  • ee
  • em
  • eir
  • eirs
  • emself
  • ès plural
  • è's plural
  • ẽs plural
  • ẽ's plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does e mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

letter

  1. 1

    The fifth letter of the English alphabet, called e and written in the Latin script.

number

  1. 1

    The fifth numeral symbol of the English alphabet, called e and written in the Latin script.

noun

  1. 1

    The name of the Latin script letter E/e.

  2. 2

    informalThe second semiquaver (sixteenth note) of a beat.

    The sax comes in on the e of one.

symbol

as ë
  1. 1

    datedAn orthographic ⟨e⟩ with a diacritic that marks it as being the FACE vowel, as in the word "cafe".

letter

as è
  1. 1

    Found in words borrowed from other languages.

  2. 2

    Used poetically instead of e in order to indicate that it is pronounced, as opposed to mute.

    My wingèd helmet and my wingèd heel

letter

as E
  1. 1

    The fifth letter of the English alphabet, called e and written in the Latin script.

number

as E
  1. 1

    The fifth numeral symbol of the English alphabet, called e and written in the Latin script.

symbol

as E
  1. 1

    Abbreviation of everyone.

  2. 2

    East.

noun

as E
  1. 1

    slangThe drug ecstasy (MDMA), particularly in pill form.

  2. 2

    Abbreviation of estrogen or estradiol.

  3. 3

    The grade below D in some grading systems. In most such systems, it is a failing grade.

  4. 4

    Abbreviation of episode (“installment of a series”).

    The pilot episode is S01E01.

  5. 5

    Initialism of execution.

letter

as é
  1. 1

    Found chiefly in words borrowed from other languages. When it occurs as the last letter of the word, it indicates that the e is not silent.

    café, resumé, animé

symbol

as ē
  1. 1

    A dictionary transcription for the middle vowel in FLEECE

symbol

as ĕ
  1. 1

    A dictionary transcription for the DRESS vowel

symbol

as ė
  1. 1

    Indicates the HAPPY vowel (final vowel of happy).

  2. 2

    datedAn element of the digraph ⟨ėr⟩, indicating the NURSE vowel.

letter

as ẽ
  1. 1

    obsoleteThe letter e with a tilde, replacing the sequence en or em.

    thẽ – them

pronoun

  1. 1

    nonstandardrareA gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, equivalent to the singular they and coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she.

    Empre waded out to help them cross the last stretch. More people, a few hundred, perhaps, had gathered along the shore. One of them came running at Melu with a cry–she threw up her arms in defense. But it was Aeran, only Aeran. E seized Asu

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

E in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenche (name of the letter E, e), e-, E-, cyber- (Translations), Hebrew (slang: ecstasy), E (slang: estrogen/estradiol)
Germane (name of the letter E, e), O (east)
Portugueseé, ê (name of the letter E, e), e- (Translations)
Spanishe (name of the letter E, e)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does e come from?

The letter name is ultimately from Latin ē. Use of the Latin letter in (Old) English displaced, in whole or in part, five futhorc letters in the 7th century: ᛖ (e), ᚫ (æ), ᛠ (ea), ᛇ (eo), and ᛟ (œ).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after e