farewell
/fɛəˈwɛl/
"farewell" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“farewell” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,421 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,421
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A wish of happiness or safety at parting, especially a permanent departure.
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
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for farewell is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɛəˈwɛl/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,421 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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
How do you spell "farewell"?
What does "farewell" mean?
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Using “farewell”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-A-R-E-W-E-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fɛəˈwɛl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Farrell” - see the side-by-side comparison. farewell vs Farrell
- 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.