ell
/ˈɛl/
"ell" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ell” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,255 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #29,255
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A measure of length. An English ell was 1¼ yards (45 inches or 114 cm), a Scottish ell was about 37 inches (94 cm), a Flemish ell was ¾ yard (27 inches or 69 cm), while certain European ells were l...
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 | ell |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɛl/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #29,255 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ell” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ell is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɛl/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,255 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A measure of length. An English ell was 1¼ yards (45 inches or 114 cm), a Scottish ell was about 37 inches (94 cm), a Flemish ell was ¾ yard (27 inches or 69 cm), while certain European ells were l...".
ell has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ex", "et", "EU", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English elle, elne, from Old English eln (“the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger; a unit of measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *alinu, from Proto-Germanic *alinō, from Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l-én-eh₂, from *… The correct English form is ell, spelled E-L-L.
Definition
- 1A measure of length. An English ell was 1¼ yards (45 inches or 114 cm), a Scottish ell was about 37 inches (94 cm), a Flemish ell was ¾ yard (27 inches or 69 cm), while certain European ells were less than 50 cm.
Etymology
From Middle English elle, elne, from Old English eln (“the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger; a unit of measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *alinu, from Proto-Germanic *alinō, from Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l-én-eh₂, from *Heh₃l- (“elbow, forearm”). Cognate with Dutch el (“ell”), German Low German Ell (“ell”), German Elle (“ell”), Swedish aln (“cubit; ell”), Icelandic alin (“cubit; ell”), Latin ulna (“forearm”).
This word in other languages
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 “ell”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɛl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ex” - see the side-by-side comparison. ell vs ex
- 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.