one by one
"one-by-one" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“one by one” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Individually in succession.
Corpus desk
Index EN-one-by-one · one by one · English
one by one · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | one by one |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “one by one” in English
Rare enough to double-check
one by one is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Individually in succession.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for one by one in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is one by one, spelled O-N-E- -B-Y- -O-N-E.
Definition
- 1Individually in succession.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how one by one appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The passengers escaped through the hatch one by one.
The walls are built up stone by stone / The fields divided one by one
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.