hair
/hɛə/
"hair" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hair” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #876 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #876
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.
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 | hair |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /hɛə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #876 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hair” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hair is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /hɛə/. Corpus data places it at rank #876 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for hair, with forms such as "ahir", "hairr", and "hhair". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "hi", "HR", "his", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English her, heer, hær, from Old English hǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *hār, from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”), from Proto-Indo-European *kes- (“to scrape, comb”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hier, Híer (“hair”), West Frisian hier (“hair”), … The correct English form is hair, spelled H-A-I-R.
Definition
- 1A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.
- 2The collection or mass of such growths growing from the skin of humans and animals, and forming a covering for any part or the whole body.
- 3Specifically, the collection of hairs on the top and sides of the human head, growing from the scalp.
- 4A slender outgrowth from the chitinous cuticle of insects, spiders, crustaceans, and other invertebrates. Such hairs are totally unlike those of vertebrates in structure, composition, and mode of growth.
- 5A cellular outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated.
- 6Any slender, flexible outgrowth, filament, or fiber growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.
- 7A locking spring or other safety device in the lock of a rifle, etc., capable of being released by a slight pressure on a hair-trigger.
- 8Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth.
- 9Complexity; difficulty; the quality of being hairy.
Etymology
From Middle English her, heer, hær, from Old English hǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *hār, from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”), from Proto-Indo-European *kes- (“to scrape, comb”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hier, Híer (“hair”), West Frisian hier (“hair”), Cimbrian haar, har (“hair”), Dutch haar (“hair”), German and Low German Haar (“hair”), Luxembourgish Hoer (“hair”), Mòcheno hor (“hair”), Yiddish האָר (hor, “hair”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish hår (“hair”), Faroese and Icelandic hár (“hair”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English cheveler, chevelere (“hair”), borrowed from Old French chevelëure (“hair, head-hair, coiffure, wig”). The modern spelling with ai is not a regular representation of the vowel developed from Middle English. Rather, it is from Middle English here (haircloth) influenced by Old French haire.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ahir,hairr,hhair,hiar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hair - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “hair”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-A-I-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /hɛə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “hi” - see the side-by-side comparison. hair vs hi
- 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.