XLR
"xlr" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“XLR” is uncommon English (frequency #68,767 among 1,183 “X” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #68,767
- frequency rank, English
- 1,183
- “X” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A kind of electrical connector, circular and having between three and seven pins, primarily used with professional audiovisual and stage lighting equipment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | XLR |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #68,767 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “XLR” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
XLR is uncommon English at frequency #68,767 among 1,183 “X” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A kind of electrical connector, circular and having between three and seven pins, primarily used with professional audiovisual and stage lighting equipment.".
No misspelling variants are generated for XLR in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From a part number prefix from the 1950s. The correct English form is XLR, spelled X-L-R.
Definition
- 1A kind of electrical connector, circular and having between three and seven pins, primarily used with professional audiovisual and stage lighting equipment.
Etymology
From a part number prefix from the 1950s.
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 “XLR”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is X-L-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.