north
/nɔːθ/
"north" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“north” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #458 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #458
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The direction towards the pole to the left-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 0°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the northern side of the invar...
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 | north |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /nɔːθ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #458 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “north” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for north is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /nɔːθ/. Corpus data places it at rank #458 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for north, with forms such as "nnorth", "norht", and "norrth". 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 18 confusable-pair relationships, "not", "nth", "note", 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 Middle English north, from Old English norþ, from Proto-West Germanic *norþr, from Proto-Germanic *nurþrą, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nér (“below (the surface)”). The meaning developed either from "region where the sun is below (the earth)" o… The correct English form is north, spelled N-O-R-T-H.
Definition
- 1The direction towards the pole to the left-hand side of someone facing east, specifically 0°, or (on another celestial object) the direction towards the pole lying on the northern side of the invariable plane.
- 2The up or positive direction.
- 3The positive or north pole of a magnet, which seeks the magnetic pole near Earth's geographic North Pole (which, for its magnetic properties, is a south pole).
- 4Alternative letter-case form of North (“a northern region; the inhabitants thereof”).
- 5In a church: the direction to the left-hand side of a person facing the altar.
Etymology
From Middle English north, from Old English norþ, from Proto-West Germanic *norþr, from Proto-Germanic *nurþrą, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nér (“below (the surface)”). The meaning developed either from "region where the sun is below (the earth)" or from "left side of someone who turns to the east when praying". Cognates Cognate with various Germanic counterparts such as Yola noardth, nordh (“north”), North Frisian noor, nord, nuurd, Nuurđ (“north”), Saterland Frisian Noude, Nudde (“north”), West Frisian noard (“north”), Dutch noord (“north”), German Nord (“north”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk nord (“north”), Faroese, Icelandic norður (“north”), Swedish nord, norr (“north”); also with Ancient Greek νέρτερος (nérteros), ἐνέρτερος (enérteros, “below”), Russian нора (nora, “hole”), Lithuanian nėrõvė (“mermaid, nymph”), Oscan 𐌍𐌄𐌓𐌕𐌓𐌀𐌊 (nertrak, “left”), Umbrian nertru (“left”), Sanskrit नरक (naraka, “hell”), Tocharian B ñor (“below”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: nnorth,norht,norrth,northh,nortth,notrh,nroth,onrth
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of north - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “north”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-O-R-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /nɔːθ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “not” - see the side-by-side comparison. north vs not
- 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.