young

/jʌŋ/

//jʌŋ// adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"young" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“young” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #364. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#364
frequency rank, English
366
“Y” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
18
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.

Corpus desk

Index EN-young · young · English

young · rank #364 · 7 variants · 18 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #364
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 18 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 366
  • PHOTO-FINISH video

Nearest frequency peer: video (-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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “young”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “young” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

young vs Yun
40% similar
young vs your
60% similar
young vs yous
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for young
PropertyValue
Headwordyoung
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/jʌŋ/
Letters5
Frequency rank#364
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs18
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “young”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).younglands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “video” (#363), “ago” (#365), “thanks” (#362). Among 366 “Y” headwords, “young” is #364. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around young (IPA /jʌŋ/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #364 among 366 “Y” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for young, with forms such as "oyung", "yonug", and "yougn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "Yun", "your", "yous", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English yong, yonge, from Old English ġeong, from Proto-West Germanic *jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuHn̥ḱós, from *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German jung, jungu, junhs, jungà… The correct English form is young, spelled Y-O-U-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.
  2. 2
    At an early stage of existence or development; having recently come into existence.
  3. 3
    advanced in age; (far towards or) at a specified stage of existence or age.
  4. 4
    Junior (of two related people with the same name).
  5. 5
    Early. (of a decade of life)
  6. 6
    Youthful; having the look or qualities of a young person.
  7. 7
    Of or belonging to the early part of life.
  8. 8
    Having little experience; inexperienced; unpracticed; ignorant; weak.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how young appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. a lamb is a young sheep
  2. these picture books are for young readers

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English yong, yonge, from Old English ġeong, from Proto-West Germanic *jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuHn̥ḱós, from *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German jung, jungu, junhs, jungà, jòng (“young”), Bavarian junk (“young”), Central Franconian, Luxembourgish jonk (“young”), Cimbrian djung, jung, junk (“young”), Dutch jong (“young”), German, German Low German, Mòcheno and Vilamovian jung (“young”), Limburgish jong, jonk (“young”), Yiddish יונג (yung, “young”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish ung (“young”), Faroese, Icelandic ungur (“young”), Gothic 𐌾𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍃 (juggs, “young”).

Synonyms

youthfuljunioryouthfuljuvenilejuvenileunderdevelopedundevelopedimmaturebaby-facedhebeticyoungyounglingyounglyyoungsomeyoungthlyyouthlyyouthsome

Antonyms

oldagedgrown upsenioryouthlesselderlyagedoldyouthlessmatureelderlyseniormatureelderlymatureexperiencedveteran

This word in other languages

joven(Español)jeune(Français)jung(Deutsch)jovem(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oyung
  • yonug
  • yougn
  • youngg
  • younng
  • yuong
  • yyoung

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of young - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

oyung2yonug2yougn2youngg1younng1yuong2yyoung1
Edit distance from "young"

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 "young"?
"young" is spelled Y-O-U-N-G. The IPA pronunciation is /jʌŋ/.
What does "young" mean?
As an adjective, "young" means: In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.
What words are commonly confused with "young"?
"young" is commonly confused with "Yun", "your", "yous". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "young"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "young" is /jʌŋ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "young"?
Inherited from Middle English yong, yonge, from Old English ġeong, from Proto-West Germanic *jung, from Proto-Germanic *jungaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yuHn̥ḱós, from *h₂yuh₁en- (“young”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German jung, jungu, ju... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "young", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

video#363court#370local#358given#372

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

early7 variantsisn't7 variantslevel7 variantsmeans7 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list