employed
/ɪmˈplɔɪd/
"employed" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“employed” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,486 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #3,486
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In a job; working.
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 | employed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɪmˈplɔɪd/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #3,486 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “employed” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for employed is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪmˈplɔɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,486 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for employed, with forms such as "emlpoyed", "emmployed", and "emplloyed". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "employee", "employer", "exploded", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is employed, spelled E-M-P-L-O-Y-E-D.
Definition
- 1In a job; working.
- 2Used; in use.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emlpoyed,emmployed,emplloyed,emploeyd,employde,employedd,employyed,emplyoed,empolyed,empployed,epmloyed,meployed
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of employed - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “employed”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-M-P-L-O-Y-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪmˈplɔɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “employee” - see the side-by-side comparison. employed vs employee
- 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.