enquire
/ɛnˈkwaɪə/
"enquire" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“enquire” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #32,376 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #32,376
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - British English form of inquire.
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 | enquire |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɛnˈkwaɪə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #32,376 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “enquire” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for enquire is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɛnˈkwaɪə/. Corpus data places it at rank #32,376 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "British English form of inquire.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for enquire, with forms such as "ennquire", "enqiure", and "enqquire". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "entire", "ensure", "equine", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French enquerre, from en- + querre (“to search, to look for”), from Latin quaerere, of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Italic *kʷaizeō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂- (“to acquire”). The correct English form is enquire, spelled E-N-Q-U-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1British English form of inquire.
Etymology
From Old French enquerre, from en- + querre (“to search, to look for”), from Latin quaerere, of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Italic *kʷaizeō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂- (“to acquire”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ennquire,enqiure,enqquire,enquier,enquirre,enqurie,enuqire,eqnuire,nequire
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of enquire - 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 “enquire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-N-Q-U-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɛnˈkwaɪə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “entire” - see the side-by-side comparison. enquire vs entire
- 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.