et
/ɛt/
"et" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“et” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #2,200) as a verb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #2,200
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pronunciation spelling of ate, the simple past and past participle of eat.
Corpus desk
Index EN-et · et · English
et · rank #2,200 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #2,200
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH emotional
Nearest frequency peer: emotional (-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 “et”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- discuss
discuss
97,804 corpus weight
- elections
elections
97,803 corpus weight
- emotional
emotional
97,802 corpus weight
- et
et
97,801 corpus weight
- everywhere
everywhere
97,800 corpus weight
- facilities
facilities
97,799 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “et” 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 | et |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɛt/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #2,200 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “et”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for et is neighbouring look-alikes ("ex", "EU", …), not just typos; it is averb pronounced /ɛt/. Frequency #2,200 among 2,246 “E” headwords. Gloss: "Pronunciation spelling of ate, the simple past and past participle of eat.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for et in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ex", "EU", "EV", 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 Middle English et, from Old English ǣt, from Proto-West Germanic *āt, from Proto-Germanic *ēt. Doublet of ate. The correct English form is et, spelled E-T.
Definition
- 1Pronunciation spelling of ate, the simple past and past participle of eat.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how et appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
So we got to talking together while he et his breakfast.
'Boss,' says the cabby, 'I et a steak in that restaurant once. If you're real hungry, I advise you to try the saddle-shops first.'
Etymology
From Middle English et, from Old English ǣt, from Proto-West Germanic *āt, from Proto-Germanic *ēt. Doublet of ate.
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.