fifth
/fɪfθ/
"fifth" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fifth” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,719 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #1,719
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The ordinal form of the number five.
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 | fifth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /fɪfθ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,719 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fifth” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fifth is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɪfθ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,719 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The ordinal form of the number five.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for fifth, with forms such as "ffifth", "ffith", and "fiffth". 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, "fit", "fish", "fits", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle English fifthe, fifte, fift, from Old English fīfta (“fifth”), from Proto-Germanic *fimftô (“fifth”) or *femftô, equivalent to five + -th (ordinal suffix). Cognate with Scots fift, fyft (“fifth”), North Frisian fyfde (“fifth”),… The correct English form is fifth, spelled F-I-F-T-H.
Definition
- 1The ordinal form of the number five.
Etymology
PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle English fifthe, fifte, fift, from Old English fīfta (“fifth”), from Proto-Germanic *fimftô (“fifth”) or *femftô, equivalent to five + -th (ordinal suffix). Cognate with Scots fift, fyft (“fifth”), North Frisian fyfde (“fifth”), West Frisian fyfde (“fifth”), Dutch vijfde (“fifth”), Low German fifte, föfte, füfte (“fifth”), German fünfte (“fifth”), Danish femte (“fifth”), Swedish femte (“fifth”), Icelandic fimmta (“fifth”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffifth,ffith,fiffth,fifht,fifthh,fiftth,fitfh,iffth
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fifth - 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 “fifth”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-I-F-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fɪfθ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fit” - see the side-by-side comparison. fifth vs fit
- 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.