employer
/ɪmˈplɔɪə/
"employer" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“employer” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,942 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #4,942
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person, firm or other entity which pays for or hires the services of another person.
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 | employer |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɪmˈplɔɪə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #4,942 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “employer” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for employer is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪmˈplɔɪə/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,942 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A person, firm or other entity which pays for or hires the services of another person.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for employer, with forms such as "emlpoyer", "emmployer", and "emplloyer". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "empower", "explorer", "employ", 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 employ + -er, first attested in the late 16th century. Compare French employeur. The correct English form is employer, spelled E-M-P-L-O-Y-E-R.
Definition
- 1A person, firm or other entity which pays for or hires the services of another person.
Etymology
From employ + -er, first attested in the late 16th century. Compare French employeur.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emlpoyer,emmployer,emplloyer,emploeyr,employerr,employre,employyer,emplyoer,empolyer,empployer,epmloyer,meployer
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of employer - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "employer"?
What does "employer" mean?
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Using “employer”
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-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪmˈplɔɪə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “empower” - see the side-by-side comparison. employer vs empower
- 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.