egg

/ˈɛɡ/

//ˈɛɡ// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"egg" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“egg” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #3,227) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#3,227
frequency rank, English
2,246
“E” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.

Corpus desk

Index EN-egg · egg · English

egg · rank #3,227 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,227
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,246
  • PHOTO-FINISH drew

Nearest frequency peer: drew (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Frequency neighbours of confusable “egg”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “egg” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

egg vs ex
33% similar
egg vs et
33% similar
egg vs EU
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for egg
PropertyValue
Headwordegg
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈɛɡ/
Letters3
Frequency rank#3,227
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “egg”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).egglands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “drew” (#3,226), “element” (#3,228), “Donald” (#3,225). Among 2,246 “E” headwords, “egg” is #3,227. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for egg is neighbouring look-alikes ("ex", "et", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈɛɡ/. Frequency #3,227 among 2,246 “E” headwords. 19 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

egg doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ex", "et", "EU", 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 eg, egg, egge (“egg of a domestic or wild fowl; egg of a snake”) [and other forms] (originally Northern England and Northeast Midlands), from Old Norse egg (“egg”), from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”) (by Holtzmann’s la… The correct English form is egg, spelled E-G-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
  2. 2
    An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
  3. 3
    An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
  4. 4
    Synonym of ovum (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell.
  5. 5
    A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
  6. 6
    A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
  7. 7
    A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
  8. 8
    A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
  9. 9
    A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
  10. 10
    A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
  11. 11
    Senses relating to people.
  12. 12
    Senses relating to people.
  13. 13
    Senses relating to people.
  14. 14
    Senses relating to people.
  15. 15
    Senses relating to people.
  16. 16
    Senses relating to people.
  17. 17
    Senses relating to people.
  18. 18
    Something regarded as containing a (usually bad) thing at an early stage.
  19. 19
    One of the blocks of data injected into a program's address space for use by certain forms of shellcode, such as "omelettes".

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how egg appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The Eſtrich (whoſe fethers are fayrer thẽ yᵉ wynges of the ſparow hauke) whẽ he hath layd his egges vpon the grounde, he bredeth them in the duſt, and forgetteth them: ſo that they might be troden with feete, or broken with ſomme wilde beaſt.
  2. [T]hinke him as a Serpents egge, / VVhich hatch'd, vvould as his kinde grovv mischieuous; / And kill him in the ſhell.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English eg, egg, egge (“egg of a domestic or wild fowl; egg of a snake”) [and other forms] (originally Northern England and Northeast Midlands), from Old Norse egg (“egg”), from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”) (by Holtzmann’s law), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), probably from *h₂éwis (“bird”), from *h₂ew- (“to consume”). Doublet of huevo, oeuf, and ovum. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian ai (“egg”), Saterland Frisian Oai (“egg”), West Frisian aai, aei (“egg”), Bavarian Oa (“egg”), Dutch ei (“egg”), German Ei (“egg”), German Low German Ai, Ägg (“egg”), Limburgish ei, Éï (“egg”), Luxembourgish Ee (“egg”), Mòcheno oi (“egg”), Vilamovian e (“egg”), Yiddish איי (ey, “egg”), Danish æg (“egg”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk egg (“egg”), Swedish ägg (“egg”), Crimean Gothic ada (“egg”); also Breton vi (“egg”), Cornish oy (“egg”), Welsh wy (“egg”), Latin ōvum (“egg”), Greek αβγό (avgó), αυγό (avgó, “egg”), Albanian vo (“egg”), Belarusian and Russian яйцо́ (jajcó, “egg”), Bulgarian яйце́ (jajcé, “egg”), Czech vejce (“egg”), Macedonian јајце (jajce, “egg”), Polish jajo (“egg”), Serbo-Croatian ја́јце, jájce (“egg”), Slovak vajce (“egg”), Slovene jájce (“egg”), Ukrainian яйце́ (jajcé, “egg”), Ossetian айк (ajk), айкӕ (ajkæ, “egg”), Armenian ձու (ju, “egg”), Northern Kurdish hêk (“egg”), Southern Kurdish خا (xa, “egg”), Zazaki hak (“egg”), Pashto هګۍ (hagë́y), ويه (wë́ya, “egg”), Persian خاگ (xâg), خایه (xâye, “egg”). The native English ey [and other forms] (plural eyren) (obsolete), from Old English ǣġ, is also derived from Proto-Germanic *ajją. It survived into at least c. 16th century before being fully displaced by egg. The verb is derived from the noun.

This word in other languages

huevo(Español)œuf(Français)Ei(Deutsch)ovo(Português)

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 "egg"?
"egg" is spelled E-G-G. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈɛɡ/.
What does "egg" mean?
As a noun, "egg" means: An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
What words are commonly confused with "egg"?
"egg" is commonly confused with "ex", "et", "EU". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "egg"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "egg" is /ˈɛɡ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "egg"?
The noun is derived from Middle English eg, egg, egge (“egg of a domestic or wild fowl; egg of a snake”) [and other forms] (originally Northern England and Northeast Midlands), from Old Norse egg (“egg”), from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”) (by Holt... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "egg", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

hip#3,237CEO#3,216gap#3,166mac#3,313

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list