elder
/ˈeldə/
"elder" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“elder” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,465 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #6,465
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - comparative degree of old: older, greater than another in age or seniority.
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 | elder |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈeldə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,465 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “elder” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for elder is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈeldə/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,465 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "comparative degree of old: older, greater than another in age or seniority.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for elder, with forms such as "edler", "eldder", and "elderr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ele", "ever", "else", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English eldre, from Old English eldra, yldra, ieldra, from Proto-Germanic *alþizô. The vowel change from a to e triggered by the following i is called umlaut or I-mutation. The correct English form is elder, spelled E-L-D-E-R.
Definition
- 1comparative degree of old: older, greater than another in age or seniority.
Etymology
From Middle English eldre, from Old English eldra, yldra, ieldra, from Proto-Germanic *alþizô. The vowel change from a to e triggered by the following i is called umlaut or I-mutation.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: edler,eldder,elderr,eldre,eledr,ellder,leder
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of elder - 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 “elder”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-L-D-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈeldə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ele” - see the side-by-side comparison. elder vs ele
- 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.