Irish
/ˈaɪɹɪʃ/
"irish" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Irish” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,796 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #2,796
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The Gaelic language indigenous to Ireland, also known as Irish Gaelic.
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 | Irish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈaɪɹɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,796 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Irish” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Irish is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈaɪɹɪʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,796 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Irish, with forms such as "iirsh", "irihs", and "irishh". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "IRS", "Isis", "iris", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Irish (12th c.), from Old English *Īrisċ, from Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Irish Éire (“Ireland”)), further origin heavily debated but probably from Proto-Celtic *Φīweriyū (“fat land, f… The correct English form is Irish, spelled I-R-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1The Gaelic language indigenous to Ireland, also known as Irish Gaelic.
- 2The Irish people.
- 3A surname originating as an ethnonym.
- 4A female given name of chiefly Philippine usage.
Etymology
From Middle English Irish (12th c.), from Old English *Īrisċ, from Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Irish Éire (“Ireland”)), further origin heavily debated but probably from Proto-Celtic *Φīweriyū (“fat land, fertile”), from Proto-Indo-European *péyh₂wr̥ (“fat, swelling”), from *peyh₂- (“to swell; to be fat”), akin to Ancient Greek πίειρα (píeira, “fertile land”), Sanskrit पीवरी (pīvarī, “fat”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iirsh,irihs,irishh,irissh,irrish,irsih,riish
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Irish - 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 “Irish”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-R-I-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈaɪɹɪʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “IRS” - see the side-by-side comparison. Irish vs IRS
- 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.