uncle
/ˈʌŋ.kl̩/
"uncle" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“uncle” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,342 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,342
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The brother or brother-in-law of one’s parent.
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 | uncle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʌŋ.kl̩/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #3,342 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “uncle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for uncle is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʌŋ.kl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,342 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for uncle, with forms such as "nucle", "ucnle", and "unccle". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "UNLV", "unite", "undue", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwh₂os Latin avunculus Old French unclebor. Middle English uncle English uncle From Middle English uncle, borrowed from Anglo-Norman uncle and Old French oncle, from Vulgar Latin *aunclum, from Latin avunculus (“materna… The correct English form is uncle, spelled U-N-C-L-E.
Definition
- 1The brother or brother-in-law of one’s parent.
- 2The male cousin of one’s parent.
- 3Used as a fictive kinship title for a close male friend of one's parent or parents.
- 4Used as a title for the male companion to one's (usually unmarried) parent.
- 5A source of advice, encouragement, or help.
- 6A pawnbroker.
- 7An affectionate term for a man of an older generation than oneself, especially a friend of one's parents, by means of fictive kin.
- 8An older African-American male.
- 9Any middle-aged or elderly man older than the speaker and/or listener.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwh₂os Latin avunculus Old French unclebor. Middle English uncle English uncle From Middle English uncle, borrowed from Anglo-Norman uncle and Old French oncle, from Vulgar Latin *aunclum, from Latin avunculus (“maternal uncle”, literally “little grandfather”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂euh₂-n-tlo- (“little grandfather”), a dialectal diminutive of *h₂éwh₂ō (“grandfather, adult male relative other than one’s father”) (whence also Latin avus (“grandfather”)). Displaced native Middle English em (“uncle”) from Old English ēam (“maternal uncle”), containing the same Proto-Indo-European root, and Old English fædera (“paternal uncle”). Compare Saterland Frisian Unkel (“uncle”), Dutch nonkel (“uncle”), German Low German Unkel (“uncle”), German Onkel (“uncle”), Danish onkel (“uncle”). More at eam and eame.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: nucle,ucnle,unccle,uncel,unclle,unlce,unncle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of uncle - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "uncle"?
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Using “uncle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is U-N-C-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʌŋ.kl̩/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “UNLV” - see the side-by-side comparison. uncle vs UNLV
- 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.