ham
/ˈhæm/
"ham" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ham” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,885 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,885
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock.
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 | ham |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhæm/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #5,885 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ham” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ham is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhæm/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,885 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ham, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. 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: Inherited from Middle English hamme, from Old English hamm (“inner or hind part of the knee, ham”), from Proto-West Germanic *hammu, from Proto-Germanic *hamō, *hammō, *hanmō, from Proto-Indo-European *kónh₂m (“leg”). Cognate with Dutch ham (“ham”), dialect… The correct English form is ham, spelled H-A-M.
Definition
- 1The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock.
- 2A thigh and/or buttock of a hog slaughtered for meat; (occasionally) the corresponding cut from some other animal.
- 3Meat from the thigh and/or buttock of a hog cured for food.
- 4The back of the thigh of humans or certain other animals.
- 5Electronic mail that is wanted; email that is not spam or junk mail.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English hamme, from Old English hamm (“inner or hind part of the knee, ham”), from Proto-West Germanic *hammu, from Proto-Germanic *hamō, *hammō, *hanmō, from Proto-Indo-European *kónh₂m (“leg”). Cognate with Dutch ham (“ham”), dialectal German Hamme (“hind part of the knee, ham”), dialectal Swedish ham (“the hind part of the knee”), Icelandic höm (“the ham or haunch of a horse”), Old Irish cnáim (“bone”), Ancient Greek κνήμη (knḗmē, “shinbone”). Compare gammon and gam.
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 “ham”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-A-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhæm/ (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. ham 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.