eldest
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "eldest", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "eldest" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "eldest" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
eldest is anEnglishadj. It means: superlative form of old: most old; greatest in age or seniority. Pronounced /ˈɛldɪst/. Often confused with elect and elves.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | eldest |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈɛldɪst/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #11,372 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for eldest is 6 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɛldɪst/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,372 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "superlative form of old: most old; greatest in age or seniority.".
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for eldest, with forms such as "edlest", "elddest", and "eldesst". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "elect", "elves", "Ernest", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is eldest, spelled E-L-D-E-S-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1superlative form of old: most old; greatest in age or seniority.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: edlest,elddest,eldesst,eldestt,eldets,eldset,eledst,elldest,ledest
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for eldest
Misspelling Variants of "eldest"
Frequency rank: #11,372 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "eldest"?
What does "eldest" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "eldest"?
How do you pronounce "eldest"?
What language does "eldest" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index: