hag
/ˈhæɡ/
"hag" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hag” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #30,075 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #30,075
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; a female wizard.
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 | hag |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhæɡ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #30,075 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hag” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hag is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhæɡ/. Corpus data places it at rank #30,075 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for hag, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "he", "hi", "HD", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hagge, hegge (“demon, old woman”), shortening of Old English hægtesse, hægtes (“harpy, witch”), from Proto-West Germanic *hagatussjā. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Häkse (“witch”), Dutch heks, German Hexe (“witch”). Doublet of hex. The correct English form is hag, spelled H-A-G.
Definition
- 1A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; a female wizard.
- 2An ugly old woman.
- 3An evil woman.
- 4A woman.
- 5A fury; a she-monster.
- 6A hagfish; one of various eel-like fish of the family Myxinidae, allied to the lamprey, with a suctorial mouth, labial appendages, and a single pair of gill openings.
- 7A hagdon or shearwater; one of various sea birds of the genus Puffinus.
- 8An appearance of light and fire on a horse's mane or a person's hair.
- 9The fruit of the hagberry, Prunus padus.
- 10Sleep paralysis.
Etymology
From Middle English hagge, hegge (“demon, old woman”), shortening of Old English hægtesse, hægtes (“harpy, witch”), from Proto-West Germanic *hagatussjā. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Häkse (“witch”), Dutch heks, German Hexe (“witch”). Doublet of hex.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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 “hag”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-A-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhæɡ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “he” - see the side-by-side comparison. hag vs he
- 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.