# glen

> English word · Noun · IPA /ɡlɛn/ · frequency rank #8,671

## Definitions
1. A secluded and narrow valley, especially one with a river running through it; a depression between hills; a dale.

## Etymology
From Middle English glen, borrowed from Irish gleann and Scottish Gaelic gleann, Old and Middle Irish glend, glenn (“mountain valley”), from Proto-Celtic *glendos (“valley”), hypothetically from Proto-Indo-European *glend- (“shore”) but the word may have been borrowed from a non-Indo-European substrate language. Compare Manx glion, Welsh glyn. Doublet of glyn.

## Easily confused with
- **gun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-gun)
- **GRE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-gre)
- **GLO** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-glo)
- **GYN** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-gyn)
- **goes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-goes)
- **grew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-grew)
- **grey** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-grey)
- **Greg** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-greg)
- **goin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-goin)
- **glow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-glow)
- **glue** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-glue)
- **gown** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-gown)
- **grin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-grin)
- **Gwen** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-gwen)
- **gran** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-gran)
- **Gunn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-gunn)
- **goon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-goon)
- **glut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-glut)
- **glyn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-glyn)
- **guan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/glen-vs-guan)

## Common misspellings (5)
`geln`, `gglen`, `gllen`, `glne`, `lgen`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/glen