weather
/ˈwɛð.ə/
"weather" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“weather” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,443 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,443
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The short-term state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, including the temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, precipitation, wind, etc.
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 | weather |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɛð.ə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,443 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “weather” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for weather is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɛð.ə/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,443 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for weather, with forms such as "ewather", "waether", and "weahter". 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 also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "weaver", "wither", "wetter", 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 weder, wedir, from Old English weder, from Proto-West Germanic *wedr, from Proto-Germanic *wedrą, from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰrom (=*we-dʰrom), from *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”). Cognates Cognate with Scots wather (“weather”), Saterland Frisia… The correct English form is weather, spelled W-E-A-T-H-E-R.
Definition
- 1The short-term state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, including the temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, precipitation, wind, etc.
- 2Unpleasant or destructive atmospheric conditions, and their effects.
- 3The direction from which the wind is blowing; used attributively to indicate the windward side.
- 4A situation.
- 5A storm; a tempest.
- 6A light shower of rain.
Etymology
From Middle English weder, wedir, from Old English weder, from Proto-West Germanic *wedr, from Proto-Germanic *wedrą, from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰrom (=*we-dʰrom), from *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”). Cognates Cognate with Scots wather (“weather”), Saterland Frisian Weeder (“weather”), Cimbrian bèttar (“weather”), Dutch weder, weer (“weather”), German Wetter (“weather”), Low German Weder (“weather”), Luxembourgish Wieder (“weather”), Yiddish וועטער (veter, “weather”), Danish vejr (“weather”), Faroese, Icelandic veður (“weather”), Norwegian Bokmål vær (“weather”), Norwegian Nynorsk veder, vêr (“weather”), Swedish väder (“weather”); also more distantly related to Russian вёдро (vjódro, “fair weather”) and perhaps Albanian vrëndë (“light rain”). Other cognates include Sanskrit निर्वाण (nirvāṇa, “blown or put out, extinguished”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ewather,waether,weahter,weatehr,weatherr,weathher,weathre,weatther,wetaher,wweather
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of weather - 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 “weather”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-E-A-T-H-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɛð.ə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “weaver” - see the side-by-side comparison. weather vs weaver
- 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.