library
/ˈlaɪ.bɹi/
"library" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“library” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,459 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,459
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An institution which holds books and/or other forms of media for use by the public or qualified people often lending them out, as well as providing various other services for its users.
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 | library |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlaɪ.bɹi/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,459 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “library” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for library is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlaɪ.bɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,459 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for library, with forms such as "ilbrary", "lbirary", and "libarry". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "literary", "libra", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman librarie, from Old French librairie, from Latin librarium (“bookcase, chest for books”), from librarius (“concerning books”), from liber (“the inner bark of trees; paper, parchment, book”), probably derived fr… The correct English form is library, spelled L-I-B-R-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1An institution which holds books and/or other forms of media for use by the public or qualified people often lending them out, as well as providing various other services for its users.
- 2Any institution that lends out its goods for use by the public or a community.
- 3A collection of books or other forms of stored information.
- 4An equivalent collection of analogous information in a non-printed form, e.g. record library.
- 5A room dedicated to storing books.
- 6A collection of software routines that provide functionality to be incorporated into or used by a computer program.
- 7A collection of DNA material from a single organism or relative to a single disease.
- 8The deck or draw pile.
Etymology
From Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman librarie, from Old French librairie, from Latin librarium (“bookcase, chest for books”), from librarius (“concerning books”), from liber (“the inner bark of trees; paper, parchment, book”), probably derived from a Proto-Indo-European base *leub(ʰ)- (“to strip, to peel”). Displaced native Middle English bochous, bokhus (literally “book house”), from Old English bōchūs (compare bookhouse). Romance cognates often mean “bookshop” instead: French librairie, Italian libreria, Spanish librería, Romanian librărie and Portuguese livraria. This is a relatively recent innovation (16th century in French), which ended up displacing the earlier sense.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ilbrary,lbirary,libarry,libbrary,librarry,libraryy,librayr,librrary,librray,lirbary,llibrary
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of library - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “library”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-I-B-R-A-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlaɪ.bɹi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “literary” - see the side-by-side comparison. library vs literary
- 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.