farmer
/ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/
"farmer" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“farmer” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,596 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,596
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Someone or something that farms, as:
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 | farmer |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #5,596 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “farmer” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for farmer is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,596 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for farmer, with forms such as "afrmer", "famrer", and "faremr". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Farr", "farms", "freer", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English fermour (“a steward, bailliff, collector of taxes”), from Old French fermier (“a farmer, a lessee, husbandman, bailliff”), from Medieval Latin firmarius (“one to whom land is rented, a collector of taxes, deputy”), from firma; equivalent… The correct English form is farmer, spelled F-A-R-M-E-R.
Definition
- 1Someone or something that farms, as:
- 2Someone or something that farms, as:
- 3One who takes taxes, customs, excise, or other duties, to collect for a certain rate per cent.
- 4The lord of the field, or one who farms the lot and cope of the crown.
- 5A regular person; someone who did not receive a prestigious scholarship.
- 6A baby farmer (operator of a rural orphanage).
Etymology
From Middle English fermour (“a steward, bailliff, collector of taxes”), from Old French fermier (“a farmer, a lessee, husbandman, bailliff”), from Medieval Latin firmarius (“one to whom land is rented, a collector of taxes, deputy”), from firma; equivalent to farm + -er. Compare Old English feormere (“a purveyor of a guild, a supplier of food, a grocer, farmer”). More at farm.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: afrmer,famrer,faremr,farmerr,farmmer,farmre,farrmer,ffarmer,framer
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of farmer - 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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Using “farmer”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-A-R-M-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Farr” - see the side-by-side comparison. farmer vs Farr
- 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.