narrow
/ˈnæɹ.əʊ/
"narrow" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“narrow” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,707 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #3,707
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
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 | narrow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈnæɹ.əʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #3,707 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “narrow” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for narrow is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈnæɹ.əʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,707 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 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 narrow, with forms such as "anrrow", "narorw", and "narow". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "narrowly", "narrower", "narco", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English narow, narowe, narewe, narwe, naru, from Old English nearu (“narrow, strait, confined, constricted, not spacious, limited, petty; limited, poor, restricted; oppressive, causing anxiety (of that which restricts free action of body or mind… The correct English form is narrow, spelled N-A-R-R-O-W.
Definition
- 1Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
- 2Of little extent; very limited; circumscribed.
- 3Restrictive; without flexibility or latitude.
- 4Contracted; of limited scope; bigoted
- 5Having a small margin or degree.
- 6Limited as to means; straitened
- 7Parsimonious; niggardly; covetous; selfish.
- 8Scrutinizing in detail; close; accurate; exact.
- 9Formed (as a vowel) by a close position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate; or (according to Bell) by a tense condition of the pharynx; distinguished from wide.
- 10Of or supporting only those text characters that can fit into the traditional 8-bit representation.
Etymology
From Middle English narow, narowe, narewe, narwe, naru, from Old English nearu (“narrow, strait, confined, constricted, not spacious, limited, petty; limited, poor, restricted; oppressive, causing anxiety (of that which restricts free action of body or mind), causing or accompanied by difficulty, hardship, oppressive; oppressed, not having free action; strict, severe”), from Proto-West Germanic *naru, from Proto-Germanic *narwaz (“constricted, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ner- (“to turn, bend, twist, constrict”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian naar, noar, noor, nåår (“narrow”), Saterland Frisian noar (“narrow”), Dutch naar (“nasty, scary; sickening, unpleasant”), Danish and Swedish nor (“narrow strait”); also Sanskrit नृत् (nṛt, “to dance; act on stage, represent”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: anrrow,narorw,narow,narroww,narrwo,nnarrow,nrarow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of narrow - 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 “narrow”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-A-R-R-O-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈnæɹ.əʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “narrowly” - see the side-by-side comparison. narrow vs narrowly
- 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.