NASA
/ˈnæsə/
"nasa" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“NASA” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,065 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #5,065
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Acronym of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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 | NASA |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈnæsə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,065 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “NASA” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for NASA is 4 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈnæsə/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,065 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for NASA, with forms such as "ansa", "naas", and "nassa". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "NBA", "NHS", "NSA", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is NASA, spelled N-A-S-A.
Definition
- 1Acronym of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- 2Acronym of National Auto Sport Association
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ansa,naas,nassa,nnasa,nsaa
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of NASA - 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 “NASA”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-A-S-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈnæsə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “NBA” - see the side-by-side comparison. NASA vs NBA
- 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.