u
/ˈjuː/
"u" is a 1-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“u” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #819 in English word frequency and used as a character.
- #819
- frequency rank, English
- 1
- letter
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The twenty-first letter of the English alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.
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 | u |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Character |
| IPA | /ˈjuː/ |
| Letters | 1 |
| Frequency rank | #819 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “u” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for u is 1 letters long, classified as a character, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈjuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #819 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The twenty-first letter of the English alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.".
No misspelling variants are generated for u in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "up", "us", "UK", 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 lower case letter v (also written u), from Old English lower case u, from 7th century replacement by lower case u of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚢ (u, ur), derived from Raetic letter u. Before the 1700s, the pointed form v was written… The correct English form is u, spelled U.
Definition
- 1The twenty-first letter of the English alphabet, called u and written in the Latin script.
Etymology
From Middle English lower case letter v (also written u), from Old English lower case u, from 7th century replacement by lower case u of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᚢ (u, ur), derived from Raetic letter u. Before the 1700s, the pointed form v was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form u was used elsewhere, regardless of sound. So whereas valor and excuse appeared as in modern printing, have and upon were printed haue and vpon. Eventually, in the 1700s, to differentiate between the consonant and vowel sounds, the v form was used to represent the consonant, and u the vowel sound. v then preceded u in the alphabet, but the order has since reversed.
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 “u”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈjuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “up” - see the side-by-side comparison. u vs up
- 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.