k
/keɪ/
"k" is a 1-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“k” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,310 in English word frequency and used as a character.
- #1,310
- frequency rank, English
- 1
- letter
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The eleventh letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.
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 | k |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Character |
| IPA | /keɪ/ |
| Letters | 1 |
| Frequency rank | #1,310 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “k” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for k is 1 letters long, classified as a character, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /keɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,310 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for k, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "kI", "ka", "ky", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is k, spelled K.
Definition
- 1The eleventh letter of the English alphabet, called kay and written in the Latin script.
- 2The first letter of callsigns allocated to American broadcast television and radio stations west of the Mississippi river.
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
How do you spell "k"?
What does "k" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "k"?
How do you pronounce "k"?
What language does "k" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “k”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /keɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “kI” - see the side-by-side comparison. k vs kI
- 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.