irk
/ɜːk/
"irk" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“irk” is an uncommon English word, ranked #60,888 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #60,888
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - to irritate; annoy; bother
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | irk |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɜːk/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #60,888 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “irk” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for irk is 3 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɜːk/. Corpus data places it at rank #60,888 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "to irritate; annoy; bother".
irk has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English irken (“to tire, grow weary”), from Old Norse yrkja (“to work”), from Proto-Germanic *wurkijaną (“to work”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to work”). Cognate with Icelandic yrkja (“to compose”), Swedish yrka (“to urge, argu… The correct English form is irk, spelled I-R-K.
Definition
- 1to irritate; annoy; bother
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English irken (“to tire, grow weary”), from Old Norse yrkja (“to work”), from Proto-Germanic *wurkijaną (“to work”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to work”). Cognate with Icelandic yrkja (“to compose”), Swedish yrka (“to urge, argue”), Old English wyrċan (“to work”). Doublet of work.
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 “irk”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-R-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɜːk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.