Wednesday
/ˈwɛnz.deɪ/
"wednesday" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Wednesday” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,566 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,566
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The fourth day of the week in many religious traditions, and the third day of the week in systems using the ISO 8601 norm; it follows Tuesday and precedes Thursday.
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 | Wednesday |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɛnz.deɪ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #2,566 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Wednesday” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Wednesday is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɛnz.deɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,566 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The fourth day of the week in many religious traditions, and the third day of the week in systems using the ISO 8601 norm; it follows Tuesday and precedes Thursday.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for Wednesday, with forms such as "ewdnesday", "wdenesday", and "weddnesday". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "Wednesdays", 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 Wednesday, from unattested Old English *wēdnesdæġ (“Wednesday”), synchronically an i-mutated form of attested wōdnesdæġ (itself from Proto-West Germanic *Wōdanas dag, its reflex Middle English Wodnesdei falling into disuse), from Proto-W… The correct English form is Wednesday, spelled W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y.
Definition
- 1The fourth day of the week in many religious traditions, and the third day of the week in systems using the ISO 8601 norm; it follows Tuesday and precedes Thursday.
Etymology
From Middle English Wednesday, from unattested Old English *wēdnesdæġ (“Wednesday”), synchronically an i-mutated form of attested wōdnesdæġ (itself from Proto-West Germanic *Wōdanas dag, its reflex Middle English Wodnesdei falling into disuse), from Proto-West Germanic *Wōdinas dag also attested in Old Frisian wednesdei and Middle Dutch wenesdach. In any case, a calque (interpretātiō germānica) of Latin diēs Mercuriī (“day of Mercury”) and Koine Ancient Greek ἡμέρα (hēméra, “day”) Ἑρμοῦ (Hermoû, “of Hermes”), via an association of the god Odin (“Woden”) with Mercury and Hermes. See also Japanese 水曜日 (“Mercury's day”). Cognates Cognate with Scots Wadensday (“Wednesday”), Yola Wennesdei (“Wednesday”), West Frisian woansdei (“Wednesday”), Afrikaans Woensdag (“Wednesday”), Central Franconian Jodesdaach (“Wednesday”), Dutch, West Flemish woensdag (“Wednesday”), Dutch Low Saxon woensdag, woonsdag, wonsdag (“Wednesday”), German Wodenstag, Wotanstag (“Wednesday”), Low German Goonsdag, Woonsdag (“Wednesday”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish onsdag (“Wednesday”), Faroese ónsdagur (“Wednesday”), Icelandic óðinsdagur (“Wednesday”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ewdnesday,wdenesday,weddnesday,wedensday,wednedsay,wednesady,wednesdayy,wednesdday,wednesdya,wednessday,wednnesday,wednseday,wendesday,wwednesday
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Wednesday - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "Wednesday"?
What does "Wednesday" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Wednesday"?
How do you pronounce "Wednesday"?
What is the origin of the word "Wednesday"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “Wednesday”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɛnz.deɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Wednesdays” - see the side-by-side comparison. Wednesday vs Wednesdays
- 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.