Esther
/ˈɛstə/
"esther" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Esther” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #12,593. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #12,593
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A female given name from Persian.
Corpus desk
Index EN-esther · Esther · English
Esther · rank #12,593 · 9 variants · 10 confusables
- FREQ-MID #12,593
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH everybody's
Nearest frequency peer: everybody's (+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 neighbourhood for “Esther”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- empirical
empirical
87,411 corpus weight
- enlarged
enlarged
87,410 corpus weight
- Esther
Esther
87,408 corpus weight
- everybody's
everybody's
87,407 corpus weight
- fantasies
fantasies
87,406 corpus weight
- faulty
faulty
87,405 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “Esther” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | Esther |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈɛstə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #12,593 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Esther” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around Esther (IPA /ˈɛstə/), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #12,593 among 2,246 “E” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for Esther, with forms such as "eshter", "essther", and "estehr". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "ether", "Ethel", "enter", 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 Ἐσθήρ (Esthḗr), from Biblical Hebrew אֶסְתֵּר (ʾestēr). Has been connected to Old Persian 𐎠𐎿𐎫𐎼 (a-s-t-r /star-/, “star”) (whence Middle Persian 𐭮𐭲𐭫 (stl /star/, “star”), 𐭮𐭲𐭠𐭫𐭪 (stʾlk /stārag/, “star”), Persian ستاره (sit… The correct English form is Esther, spelled E-S-T-H-E-R.
Definition
- 1A female given name from Persian.
- 2A book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
- 3The heroine of the Book of Esther.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how Esther appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father or mother, and the maiden was fair and beautiful.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek Ἐσθήρ (Esthḗr), from Biblical Hebrew אֶסְתֵּר (ʾestēr). Has been connected to Old Persian 𐎠𐎿𐎫𐎼 (a-s-t-r /star-/, “star”) (whence Middle Persian 𐭮𐭲𐭫 (stl /star/, “star”), 𐭮𐭲𐭠𐭫𐭪 (stʾlk /stārag/, “star”), Persian ستاره (sitāra /setâre, “star”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr (if so, a distant doublet of star); or else to Akkadian 𒀭𒈹 (Ištar, “Ishtar”) (Hebrew עִשְׁתָּר (ʿištār)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- eshter
- essther
- estehr
- estherr
- esthher
- esthre
- estther
- etsher
- sether
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Esther - 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 "Esther"?
What does "Esther" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Esther"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Esther", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "Esther". Here's where to go from here.
- "Esther" maps to 10 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "ether". View pair
- 9 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #12,593 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "E" letter cohort. E–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.