erg
/ɜːɡ/
"erg" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“erg” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #48,222) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #48,222
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A unit of work or energy, being the amount of work done by a force of one dyne applied through a distance of one centimeter. Equal to 10⁻⁷ joules.
Corpus desk
Index EN-erg · erg · English
erg · rank #48,222 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #48,222
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH Enright
Nearest frequency peer: Enright (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “erg”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- emoluments
emoluments
51,783 corpus weight
- endometrial
endometrial
51,782 corpus weight
- Enright
Enright
51,780 corpus weight
- erg
erg
51,779 corpus weight
- eucharistic
eucharistic
51,778 corpus weight
- Eusebius
Eusebius
51,777 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “erg” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | erg |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɜːɡ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #48,222 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “erg”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for erg is neighbouring look-alikes ("ex", "et", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ɜːɡ/. Frequency #48,222 among 2,246 “E” headwords. Gloss: "A unit of work or energy, being the amount of work done by a force of one dyne applied through a distance of one centimeter. Equal to 10⁻⁷ joules.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for erg, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ex", "et", "EU", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”). Doublet of ergon and work. The correct English form is erg, spelled E-R-G.
Definition
- 1A unit of work or energy, being the amount of work done by a force of one dyne applied through a distance of one centimeter. Equal to 10⁻⁷ joules.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”). Doublet of ergon and work.
This word in other languages
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 "erg"?
What does "erg" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "erg"?
How do you pronounce "erg"?
What is the origin of the word "erg"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "erg", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).