orl
/ɔːl/
"orl" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“orl” is uncommon English (frequency #78,901 among 1,431 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #78,901
- frequency rank, English
- 1,431
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An alder tree.
Corpus desk
Index EN-orl · orl · English
orl · rank #78,901 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #78,901
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,431
- PHOTO-FINISH Ordway
Nearest frequency peer: Ordway (-2 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “orl”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Omsk
Omsk
21,105 corpus weight
- OpenBSD
OpenBSD
21,104 corpus weight
- Ordway
Ordway
21,102 corpus weight
- orl
orl
21,100 corpus weight
- otitis
otitis
21,098 corpus weight
- Ottumwa
Ottumwa
21,097 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “orl” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | orl |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɔːl/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #78,901 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “orl” in English
Rare enough to double-check
orl is uncommon English at frequency #78,901 among 1,431 “O” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɔːl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for orl, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Metathetic variant of olr, itself a variant of alr, itself a contraction of aller, itself a form of alder closer to the original Old English form of alor, aler (the d was a phonetic addition in Middle English); compare the English oryelle, as well as the Ol… The correct English form is orl, spelled O-R-L.
Definition
- 1An alder tree.
- 2orl fly
Etymology
Metathetic variant of olr, itself a variant of alr, itself a contraction of aller, itself a form of alder closer to the original Old English form of alor, aler (the d was a phonetic addition in Middle English); compare the English oryelle, as well as the Old High German erila, the Middle High German erle, and the Modern German Erle.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "orl", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).