nab
/næb/
"nab" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nab” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #24,839 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #24,839
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To seize, arrest or take into custody (a criminal or fugitive).
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 | nab |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /næb/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #24,839 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nab” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nab is 3 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /næb/. Corpus data places it at rank #24,839 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for nab, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "NC", "ne", "NJ", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From dialectal nap (“to seize, lay hold of”), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Swedish nappa (“to pluck, pinch”). Related to Danish nappe (“to tweak, snatch at, catch, seize”), Swedish nappa (“to take, grab, pinch”), Norwegian Bokmål nappe (“to g… The correct English form is nab, spelled N-A-B.
Definition
- 1To seize, arrest or take into custody (a criminal or fugitive).
- 2To grab or snatch something.
- 3To steal or copy another user's post.
Etymology
From dialectal nap (“to seize, lay hold of”), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Swedish nappa (“to pluck, pinch”). Related to Danish nappe (“to tweak, snatch at, catch, seize”), Swedish nappa (“to take, grab, pinch”), Norwegian Bokmål nappe (“to grab, snatch, pluck, yank”).
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “nab”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-A-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /næb/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “NC” - see the side-by-side comparison. nab vs NC
- 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.