ere
/eːɹə/contraction
ere is spelled E-R-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 24,170th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Ere, the name). As a contraction, ere means “A contraction of is, there, and the indefinite article. Mainly used in questions” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in ere?
| Letters | 3: E-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words; the 24,170th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ere?
Ere appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 24,170th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Ere, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ere?
- /eːɹə/
As an adverb (“At an earlier time”): /ɛə/, /ɛː/, /ɛɚ/.
Ere has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-air.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with ere
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: are, e'er, err (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: ear.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with ere?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ere from its last stressed vowel (/ɛəɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ree, eer.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ere
- yer
- 'ere
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ere mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
contraction
- 1
IrelandinformalA contraction of is, there, and the indefinite article. Mainly used in questions.
'Ere bit o' bacon in it, Kathleen?
noun
- 1
Initialism of extended regular expression.
adverb
- 1
obsoleteAt an earlier time.
preposition
- 1
archaicBefore; sooner than.
conjunction
- 1
archaicbefore.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ere in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense before, sooner than:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ere come from?
Formed from is + there + a/an.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).