week
/wiːk/
"week" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“week” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #251 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #251
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any period of seven consecutive days.
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 | week |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /wiːk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #251 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “week” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for week is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wiːk/. Corpus data places it at rank #251 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for week, with forms such as "ewek", "weekk", and "wek". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wet", "WWE", "Wes", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wyke, weke, from Old English wiċe, wucu (“week”), from Proto-West Germanic *wikā, from Proto-Germanic *wikǭ (“sequence; week”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyg-, *weyk- (“to bend, curve”). Related to Proto-Germanic *wīkaną (“to bend, yiel… The correct English form is week, spelled W-E-E-K.
Definition
- 1Any period of seven consecutive days.
- 2A period of seven days beginning with Sunday or Monday.
- 3A period of five days beginning with Monday.
- 4A subdivision of the month into longer periods of work days punctuated by shorter weekend periods of days for markets, rest, or religious observation such as a sabbath.
- 5A date seven days after (sometimes before) the specified day.
Etymology
From Middle English wyke, weke, from Old English wiċe, wucu (“week”), from Proto-West Germanic *wikā, from Proto-Germanic *wikǭ (“sequence; week”), from Proto-Indo-European *weyg-, *weyk- (“to bend, curve”). Related to Proto-Germanic *wīkaną (“to bend, yield, cease”). Cognates Cognate with Scots ouk, oulk (“week”), Yola wick, wik (“week”), North Frisian waag, Week, weg (“week”), Saterland Frisian Wiek, Wíek (“week”), West Frisian wike (“week”), Bavarian Wochn (“week”), Cimbrian boch, bòcha (“week”), Dutch week (“week”), German Woche (“week”), German Low German Week (“week”), Limburgish waek, Wéëk (“week”), Luxembourgish Woch (“week”), Mòcheno boch (“week”), Vilamovian woch (“week”), Yiddish וואָך (vokh, “week”), Danish uge (“week”), Elfdalian wiku, wikå (“week”), Faroese and Icelandic vika (“week”), Jamtish vuku (“week”), Norwegian Bokmål uke (“week”), Norwegian Nynorsk veke, vika, viku, vukku, vuku (“week”), Scanian uga (“week”), Swedish vecka (“week”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌺𐍉 (wikō, “sequence; week”); also Cornish gwigh (“periwinkles, whelks”), Irish faocha, faochóg (“periwinkle”), Latin vicis (“alteration, turn; time”), Ancient Greek εἴκω (eíkō, “to yield”), Albanian vig (“bier, litter, stretcher”), Northern Kurdish avêtin, avitin, avîtin, havêtin, havîtin (“to cast, hurl, throw”), Persian آویختَن (âvixtan, “to hang, suspend”), بیختن (bēxtan / bixtan, “to sieve, sift”). Related also to Old English wīcan (“to yield, give way”), English weak and wick.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ewek,weekk,wek,weke,wweek
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of week - 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
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Using “week”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-E-E-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /wiːk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “wet” - see the side-by-side comparison. week vs wet
- 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.