utmost
/ˈʌtməʊ̯st/
"utmost" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“utmost” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,885 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #12,885
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - superlative form of utter: most utter; situated at the most distant limit; farthest, outermost.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | utmost |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈʌtməʊ̯st/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #12,885 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “utmost” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for utmost is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʌtməʊ̯st/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,885 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "superlative form of utter: most utter; situated at the most distant limit; farthest, outermost.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for utmost, with forms such as "tumost", "umtost", and "utmmost". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *úd From Middle English utmost, utemest [and other forms], from Old English ūtmest, ūtemest [and other forms], from ūt, ūte (“out; outdoors, outside”) + -mest (suffix meaning ‘furthest’, used to form superlatives of some adjectives) (and conflated… The correct English form is utmost, spelled U-T-M-O-S-T.
Definition
- 1superlative form of utter: most utter; situated at the most distant limit; farthest, outermost.
Etymology
PIE word *úd From Middle English utmost, utemest [and other forms], from Old English ūtmest, ūtemest [and other forms], from ūt, ūte (“out; outdoors, outside”) + -mest (suffix meaning ‘furthest’, used to form superlatives of some adjectives) (and conflated with most). Ūt is derived from Proto-Germanic *ūt (“out, outward”), from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“out, outward”). Equivalent to out + -most.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: tumost,umtost,utmmost,utmosst,utmostt,utmots,utmsot,utomst,uttmost
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of utmost - 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 “utmost”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is U-T-M-O-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʌtməʊ̯st/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.