Easter
/ˈiːstə/
"easter" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Easter” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,877 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,877
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A Christian feast commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on the first Sunday (and Monday) following the full moon that occurs on or next after the vernal equinox, ranging ...
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 | Easter |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈiːstə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #5,877 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Easter” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Easter is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈiːstə/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,877 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 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 Easter, with forms such as "aester", "easetr", and "easster". 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, "enter", "eaten", "eater", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English Ester, from Old English ēastre, seemingly from Ēastre, a proposed Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn whose festival is thought to have been celebrated around the vernal equinox. Further from Proto-West Germanic *Austrā, … The correct English form is Easter, spelled E-A-S-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1A Christian feast commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on the first Sunday (and Monday) following the full moon that occurs on or next after the vernal equinox, ranging in most of Western Christianity (such as Protestantism and Roman Catholicism) from March 22 to April 25, and in Eastern Christianity (such as the Coptic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church) from April 4 to May 8.
- 2Eastertide (“the period from Easter to Whitsun”).
- 3Usually preceded by an inflection of make: the act of receiving the Eucharist during Easter.
- 4Ellipsis of Easter term.
- 5A festival held in honour of the goddess Eostre or Ostara, celebrated at the vernal equinox or within the month of April; Eostre, Ostara.
- 6The Jewish Passover.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English Ester, from Old English ēastre, seemingly from Ēastre, a proposed Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn whose festival is thought to have been celebrated around the vernal equinox. Further from Proto-West Germanic *Austrā, from Proto-Germanic *Austrǭ, derived from either Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- (“dawn; east”) or, more semantically plausible, from *austrą, *auzrą, a metathesized form of *wazrą (“spring (season)”), *-ǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *wósr̥ (“spring”). The English word is cognate with German Low German Oostern (“Easter”), Old High German ōstarūn (modern German Ostern) and is possibly a doublet of east. Despite a modern folk etymology, not related to Ishtar. The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aester,easetr,easster,easterr,eastre,eastter,eatser,esater
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Easter - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "Easter"?
What does "Easter" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Easter"?
How do you pronounce "Easter"?
What is the origin of the word "Easter"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “Easter”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-A-S-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈiːstə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “enter” - see the side-by-side comparison. Easter vs enter
- 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.