third
/θɜːd/
"third" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“third” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #483 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #483
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second.
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 | third |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /θɜːd/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #483 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “third” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for third is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /θɜːd/. Corpus data places it at rank #483 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for third, with forms such as "htird", "thhird", and "thidr". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "this", "tied", "tire", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *tréyes From Middle English thirde, thridde, from Old English þridda, from Proto-Germanic *þridjô, from Pre-Germanic *tretyós, a remodeling of Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós. The correct English form is third, spelled T-H-I-R-D.
Definition
- 1The ordinal form of the cardinal number three; Coming after the second.
Etymology
PIE word *tréyes From Middle English thirde, thridde, from Old English þridda, from Proto-Germanic *þridjô, from Pre-Germanic *tretyós, a remodeling of Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: htird,thhird,thidr,thirdd,thirrd,thrid,tihrd,tthird
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of third - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “third”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-H-I-R-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /θɜːd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “this” - see the side-by-side comparison. third vs this
- 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.