farewell
/fɛəˈwɛl/
"farewell" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“farewell” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #8,421. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #8,421
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A wish of happiness or safety at parting, especially a permanent departure.
Corpus desk
Index EN-farewell · farewell · English
farewell · rank #8,421 · 10 variants · 2 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #8,421
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH fist
Nearest frequency peer: fist (+2 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 “farewell”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- emerge
emerge
91,584 corpus weight
- excluded
excluded
91,583 corpus weight
- farewell
farewell
91,580 corpus weight
- fist
fist
91,578 corpus weight
- fond
fond
91,577 corpus weight
- foolish
foolish
91,576 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “farewell” 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 | farewell |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɛəˈwɛl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #8,421 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “farewell” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around farewell (IPA /fɛəˈwɛl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #8,421 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for farewell, with forms such as "afrewell", "faerwell", and "fareewll". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "Farrell", "firewall", 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 farewel, from fare wel! (and the variants with the personal pronoun "fare ye well" and "fare you well" used in the Renaissance), an imperative expression, possibly further derived from Old English *far wel!, equivalent to fare (“to fare,… The correct English form is farewell, spelled F-A-R-E-W-E-L-L.
Definition
- 1A wish of happiness or safety at parting, especially a permanent departure.
- 2A departure; the act of leaving.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how farewell appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He bid farewell to all of his fans.
The departure was not unduly prolonged.[…]Within the door Mrs. Spoker hastily imparted to Mrs. Love a few final sentiments on the subject of Divine Intention in the disposition of buckets; farewells and last commiserations; a deep, guttural instigation to the horse; and the wheels of the waggonette crunched heavily away into obscurity.
Etymology
From Middle English farewel, from fare wel! (and the variants with the personal pronoun "fare ye well" and "fare you well" used in the Renaissance), an imperative expression, possibly further derived from Old English *far wel!, equivalent to fare (“to fare, travel, journey”) + well. Compare Scots farewele, fairweill (“farewell”), Saterland Frisian Foarwäil (“farewell”), West Frisian farwol (“farewell”), German Fahrwol, Fahrwohl, East Frisian forwal, Dutch vaarwel (“farewell (sadly)”), Danish farvel (“farewell”), Norwegian farvel (“farewell”), Swedish farväl (“farewell”), Faroese farvæl (“goodbye”), Icelandic far vel (“farewell”). The extensive list of cognates suggests a postulated ultimate Proto-Germanic phrase of origin, possibly something akin to *far wela.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- afrewell
- faerwell
- fareewll
- farewel
- farewlel
- farewwell
- farrewell
- farweell
- ffarewell
- fraewell
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of farewell - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "farewell", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "farewell". Here's where to go from here.
- "farewell" maps to 2 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "Farrell". View pair
- 10 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #8,421 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "F" letter cohort. F–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.