et
/ɛt/
"et" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“et” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,200 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #2,200
- frequency rank, English
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Pronunciation spelling of ate, the simple past and past participle of eat.
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) |
Where “et” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for et is 2 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɛt/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,200 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “et”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɛt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ex” - see the side-by-side comparison. et vs ex
- 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.