Old English
"old-english" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Old English” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a proper noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The ancestor language of Modern English, also called Anglo-Saxon, spoken in most of Britain from about 400 to 1100.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Old English |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Old English” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Old English is 11 letters long, classified as a proper noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for Old English in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is Old English, spelled O-L-D- -E-N-G-L-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1The ancestor language of Modern English, also called Anglo-Saxon, spoken in most of Britain from about 400 to 1100.
- 2Archaic English (Early Modern English) or Middle English speech or writing, or an imitation of this: "old" English.
- 3The form of black letter used by 16th-century English printers.
- 4A historical ethnic group in Ireland descended from Norman invaders from Britain from the 12th century to the 17th century.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Old English”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is O-L-D- -E-N-G-L-I-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.