label
/ˈleɪ.bəl/
"label" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“label” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,436 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,436
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
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 | label |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈleɪ.bəl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #3,436 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “label” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for label is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈleɪ.bəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,436 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 13 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 label, with forms such as "albel", "labbel", and "labell". 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, "lel", "late", "lake", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English label (“narrow band, strip of cloth”), from Old French label, lambel (Modern French lambeau), from Frankish *lappā (“torn piece of cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *lappǭ, *lappô (“cloth stuff, rag, scraps, flap, dewlap, lobe, rabbit ear”), … The correct English form is label, spelled L-A-B-E-L.
Definition
- 1A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
- 2A name given to something or someone to categorise them as part of a particular social group.
- 3A company that sells records.
- 4A user-defined alias for a numerical designation, the reverse of an enumeration.
- 5A named place in source code that can be jumped to using a GOTO or equivalent construct.
- 6A charge resembling the strap crossing the horse’s chest from which pendants are hung.
- 7A tassel.
- 8A small strip, especially of paper or parchment (or of some material attached to parchment to carry the seal), but also of iron, brass, land, etc.
- 9A piece of writing added to something, such as a codicil appended to a will.
- 10A brass rule with sights, formerly used with a circumferentor to take altitudes.
- 11The projecting moulding by the sides, and over the tops, of openings in mediaeval architecture.
- 12In mediaeval and later art, a representation of a band or scroll containing an inscription.
- 13A non-interactive control or widget displaying text, often used to describe the purpose of another control.
Etymology
From Middle English label (“narrow band, strip of cloth”), from Old French label, lambel (Modern French lambeau), from Frankish *lappā (“torn piece of cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *lappǭ, *lappô (“cloth stuff, rag, scraps, flap, dewlap, lobe, rabbit ear”), from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“blade”). Cognate with Old High German lappa (“rag, piece of cloth”), Old English læppa (“skirt, flap of a garment”). More at lap.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: albel,labbel,labell,lable,laebl,lbael,llabel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of label - 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 “label”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-A-B-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈleɪ.bəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “lel” - see the side-by-side comparison. label vs lel
- 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.