iron
/æːn/
"iron" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“iron” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,866 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,866
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A common, inexpensive metal, silvery grey when untarnished, that rusts, is attracted by magnets, and is used in making steel: a chemical element having atomic number 26 and symbol Fe.
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 | iron |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /æːn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,866 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “iron” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for iron is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /æːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,866 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for iron, with forms such as "iorn", "irno", and "ironn". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "IRS", "iso", "Ivo", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English iren, from Old English īsern, īsærn, īren, īsen, from Proto-West Germanic *īsarn, from Proto-Germanic *īsarną (“iron”), from Proto-Celtic *īsarnom (“iron”), possibly a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”). Cognates Cog… The correct English form is iron, spelled I-R-O-N.
Definition
- 1A common, inexpensive metal, silvery grey when untarnished, that rusts, is attracted by magnets, and is used in making steel: a chemical element having atomic number 26 and symbol Fe.
- 2Any material, not a steel, predominantly made of elemental iron.
- 3A tool or appliance made of metal, which is heated and then used to transfer heat to something else; most often a thick piece of metal fitted with a handle and having a flat, roughly triangular bottom, which is heated and used to press wrinkles from clothing, and now usually containing an electrical heating apparatus.
- 4Any of several other tools traditionally made of wrought iron, now usually of steel.
- 5Shackles.
- 6A firearm, either a long gun or a handgun.
- 7A dark shade of the color silver.
- 8A male homosexual.
- 9A golf club used for middle-distance shots.
- 10Used as a symbol of great strength or toughness, or to signify a very strong or tough material.
- 11Weight used as resistance for the purpose of strength training.
- 12A meteorite consisting primarily of metallic iron (mixed with a small amount of nickel), as opposed to one composed mainly of stony material.
- 13A safety curtain in a theatre.
- 14A dumb bomb, one without guidance systems.
Etymology
From Middle English iren, from Old English īsern, īsærn, īren, īsen, from Proto-West Germanic *īsarn, from Proto-Germanic *īsarną (“iron”), from Proto-Celtic *īsarnom (“iron”), possibly a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”). Cognates Cognate with Scots airn, ern (“iron”), Yola eeren (“iron”), Saterland Frisian Iersen (“iron”), West Frisian izer (“iron”), Bavarian Eisn (“iron”), Cimbrian aizarn (“iron”), Dutch ijzer (“iron”), German, Luxembourgish Eisen (“iron”), German Low German Isen (“iron”), Limburgish iezer (“iron”), Mòcheno aisn (“iron”), Vilamovian ȧjza (“iron”), West Flemish yzer (“iron”), Yiddish אײַזן (ayzn, “iron”), Danish jern, jærn (“iron”), Faroese jarn (“iron”), Icelandic járn (“iron”), Jamtish járn, jáðn (“iron”), Norwegian Bokmål jern (“iron”), Norwegian Nynorsk jarn, jern, jønn (“iron”), Swedish jern, jaͤrn, järn (“iron”), Gothic 𐌴𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂𐌽 (eisarn, “iron”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iorn,irno,ironn,irron,rion
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of iron - 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 “iron”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-R-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /æːn/ (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. iron 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.