Harold
/ˈhæɹ.əld/
"harold" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Harold” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,791 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #6,791
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A male given name from Old English or Old Norse.
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 | Harold |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈhæɹ.əld/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #6,791 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Harold” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Harold is 6 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhæɹ.əld/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,791 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A male given name from Old English or Old Norse.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for Harold, with forms such as "ahrold", "haorld", and "harlod". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "hold", "Herod", "herald", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From a merger of Old English Hereweald and Old English Harold (itself from Old Norse Haraldr), both from Proto-Germanic *Harjawaldaz, from *harjaz (“army”) + *waldaz (“ruler, authority”). Related to Walter, which has the elements reversed. Cognate with Dani… The correct English form is Harold, spelled H-A-R-O-L-D.
Definition
- 1A male given name from Old English or Old Norse.
Etymology
From a merger of Old English Hereweald and Old English Harold (itself from Old Norse Haraldr), both from Proto-Germanic *Harjawaldaz, from *harjaz (“army”) + *waldaz (“ruler, authority”). Related to Walter, which has the elements reversed. Cognate with Danish, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish Harald, Faroese and Icelandic Haraldur.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ahrold,haorld,harlod,harodl,haroldd,harolld,harrold,hharold,hraold
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Harold - 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 “Harold”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-A-R-O-L-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhæɹ.əld/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “hold” - see the side-by-side comparison. Harold vs hold
- 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.