man
/ˈmæn/
"man" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“man” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #148) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #148
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An adult male human.
Corpus desk
Index EN-man · man · English
man · rank #148 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #148
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH love
Nearest frequency peer: love (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “man”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- best
best
99,856 corpus weight
- such
such
99,855 corpus weight
- love
love
99,854 corpus weight
- man
man
99,853 corpus weight
- home
home
99,852 corpus weight
- long
long
99,851 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “man” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | man |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmæn/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #148 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “man” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for man is neighbouring look-alikes ("my", "ME", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈmæn/. Frequency #148 among 4,057 “M” headwords. 22 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
man doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "my", "ME", "Mr", 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 man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of Manu. Cognates Cognate with Yola man (“man; hu… The correct English form is man, spelled M-A-N.
Definition
- 1An adult male human.
- 2An adult male human.
- 3An adult male human.
- 4An adult male human.
- 5An adult male human.
- 6A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult.
- 7A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult.
- 8A member of the genus Homo, especially of the species Homo sapiens.
- 9A male person, usually an adult; a (generally adult male) sentient being, whether human, supernatural, elf, alien, etc.
- 10Manliness; the quality or state of being manly.
- 11A husband.
- 12A male lover; a boyfriend.
- 13Used as the last element of a compound.
- 14Used as the last element of a compound.
- 15A person, usually male, who can fulfill one's requirements with regard to a specified matter.
- 16A vassal; a subject.
- 17A piece or token used in board games such as backgammon.
- 18One of the player's chances to play, lost when the player's character dies or when certain mistakes are made.
- 19A term of familiar address often implying on the part of the speaker some degree of authority, impatience, or haste.
- 20A term of familiar address usually reserved for other adult males. It works both with ones whose name is known and ones whose name is unknown.
- 21A player on whom another is playing, with the intent of limiting their attacking impact.
- 22A soldier below the rank of a non-commissioned officer.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how man appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The show is especially popular with middle-aged men.
The king is but a man, as I am; the violet smells to him as it doth to me.
Etymology
From Middle English man, from Old English mann m (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-West Germanic *mann, from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *mon- (“human being, man”). Doublet of Manu. Cognates Cognate with Yola man (“man; husband”), North Frisian maan, man, moon, muon (“man; husband”), Saterland Frisian Mon (“man; husband”), West Frisian man (“man; husband”), Alemannic German ma, Maa, Mann, mo, mà, Mànn (“man; husband”), Bavarian Mo, mon, moon, Må, mònn (“man; husband”), Cimbrian man, mann, månn (“man; husband”), Dutch man (“man; husband”), German, German Low German, and Luxembourgish Mann (“man; husband”), Mòcheno mònn (“man”), Vilamovian maon, mon, mōn (“man; husband”), Yiddish מאַן (man, “man”), Danish mand (“man; husband”), Faroese and Icelandic maður (“male, man; husband”), Norn and Norwegian Bokmål mann (“man; husband”), Norwegian Nynorsk mann, mainnj (“man; husband”), Swedish man (“man; husband”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna, “man; human”); also Latin humanus (“human”), Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian муж (muž, “husband; man”), Bulgarian мъж (mǎž, “man; husband”), Czech and Slovak muž (“man; husband”), Macedonian маж (maž, “man; husband”), Polish mąż (“man; husband”), Serbo-Croatian му̑ж, mȗž (“man; husband”), Slovene mož (“man; husband”), Avestan 𐬨𐬀𐬥𐬎𐬱 (manuš, “human”), Sanskrit मनु (manu, “intelligent, thinking, wise”), मनुस् (manus, “man”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "man", not the corpus desk frequency band.
What to do next
You've looked up "man". Here's where to go from here.
- "man" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "my". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #148 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "M" letter cohort. M–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.