early
"early" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“early” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #354 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #354
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.
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 | early |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #354 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “early” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for early is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #354 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for early, with forms such as "aerly", "ealry", and "earlly". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "Ely", "easy", "earn", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English erly, erlich, earlich, from Old English ǣrlīċ (“early”, adjective), equivalent to ere + -ly. The correct English form is early, spelled E-A-R-L-Y.
Definition
- 1At a time in advance of the usual or expected event.
- 2Arriving a time before expected; sooner than on time.
- 3After but close to the start of a period of time.
- 4In the starting hours of the day.
- 5Having begun to occur; in its early stages.
- 6Of a star or class of stars, hotter than the sun.
Etymology
From Middle English erly, erlich, earlich, from Old English ǣrlīċ (“early”, adjective), equivalent to ere + -ly.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aerly,ealry,earlly,earlyy,earrly,earyl,eraly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of early - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “early”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-A-R-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “Ely” - see the side-by-side comparison. early vs Ely
- 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.