Emacs
/ˈiːmæks/
"emacs" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Emacs” is uncommon English (frequency #54,756 among 18,836 “E” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,756
- frequency rank, English
- 18,836
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A particular visual or WYSIWYG text editor (first written by Richard Stallman in 1975 but since reimplemented by others in several distinct versions), distinguished by its use of control characters...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Emacs |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈiːmæks/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #54,756 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Emacs” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Emacs is uncommon English at frequency #54,756 among 18,836 “E” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed /ˈiːmæks/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A particular visual or WYSIWYG text editor (first written by Richard Stallman in 1975 but since reimplemented by others in several distinct versions), distinguished by its use of control characters...".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Emacs, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Blend of editor + macros. The correct English form is Emacs, spelled E-M-A-C-S.
Definition
- 1A particular visual or WYSIWYG text editor (first written by Richard Stallman in 1975 but since reimplemented by others in several distinct versions), distinguished by its use of control characters as editing commands, by its lack of distinct "insert" and "edit" modes, and by its featurefulness and extensibility.
Etymology
Blend of editor + macros.
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 “Emacs”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-M-A-C-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈiːmæks/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.