year
/jɪə/
"year" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“year” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #117. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #117
- frequency rank, English
- 2,763
- “Y” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.
Corpus desk
Index EN-year · year · English
year · rank #117 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #117
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,763
- PHOTO-FINISH work
Nearest frequency peer: work (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “year”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- did
did
99,887 corpus weight
- right
right
99,886 corpus weight
- work
work
99,885 corpus weight
- year
year
99,884 corpus weight
- years
years
99,883 corpus weight
- being
being
99,882 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “year” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | year |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /jɪə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #117 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “year” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around year (IPA /jɪə/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #117 among 2,763 “Y” headwords. Wiktionary lists 11 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for year, with forms such as "eyar", "yaer", and "yearr". 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, "yr", "yet", "yes", 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 yeer, yere, from Old English ġēar (“year”), from Proto-West Germanic *jār, from Proto-Germanic *jērą (“year”), from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, spring”). Doublet of hora and hour. Cognates Cognate with Scots year (“year”), North … The correct English form is year, spelled Y-E-A-R.
Definition
- 1A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.
- 2A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.
- 3A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.
- 4A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.
- 5A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.
- 6A period of time akin to the time taken for the Earth to undergo a full cycle of seasons.
- 7An orbital period: the period of one revolution in any particular orbit: The time it takes for any astronomical object (such as a planet, dwarf planet, small Solar System body, or comet) in direct orbit around a star (such as the Sun) to make one revolution around the star.
- 8A period between set dates that mark a year, such as from January 1 to December 31 by the Gregorian calendar, from Tishri 1 to Elul 29 by the Jewish calendar, and from Muharram 1 to Dhu al-Hijjah 29 or 30 by the Islamic calendar.
- 9A scheduled part of a calendar year spent in a specific activity.
- 10A scheduled part of a calendar year spent in a specific activity.
- 11The proportion of a creature's lifespan equivalent to one year of an average human lifespan (see also dog year).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how year appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
we moved to this town a year ago; I quit smoking exactly one year ago
Mars goes around the sun once in a Martian year, or 1.88 Earth years.
Etymology
From Middle English yeer, yere, from Old English ġēar (“year”), from Proto-West Germanic *jār, from Proto-Germanic *jērą (“year”), from Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year, spring”). Doublet of hora and hour. Cognates Cognate with Scots year (“year”), North Frisian djooar, iir, Jaar, jeer, juar, jäär (“year”), Saterland Frisian Jíer (“year”), West Frisian jier (“year”), Bavarian Joahr, Jåar, Jåhr (“year”), Cimbrian djar, jaar (“year”), Dutch jaar (“year”), German Jahr (“year”), Limburgish jaor, Johr, Joër (“year”), Low German Johr, Jåhr (“year”), Luxembourgish Joer (“year”), Mòcheno jor (“year”), Swabian Johr (“year”), Vilamovian jür (“year”), West Flemish joar (“year”), Yiddish יאָר (yor), יאָהר (yohr, “year”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish år (“year”), Faroese, Icelandic ár (“year”), Gothic 𐌾𐌴𐍂 (jēr, “year”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- eyar
- yaer
- yearr
- yera
- yyear
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of year - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "year"?
What does "year" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "year", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
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.