youth

/juːθ/

//juːθ// noun

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

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

The verdict

“youth” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,850. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,850
frequency rank, English
366
“Y” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
9
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The quality or state of being young.

Corpus desk

Index EN-youth · youth · English

youth · rank #1,850 · 7 variants · 9 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,850
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 366
  • PHOTO-FINISH yours

Nearest frequency peer: yours (-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 “youth”

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

corpus weight

What this shows “youth” 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).

youth vs yuh
60% similar
youth vs youths
83% similar
youth vs you
60% similar

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

Key facts for youth
PropertyValue
Headwordyouth
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/juːθ/
Letters5
Frequency rank#1,850
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “youth”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).youthlands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “yours” (#1,849), “2nd” (#1,851), “weapons” (#1,848). Among 366 “Y” headwords, “youth” is #1,850. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around youth (IPA /juːθ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,850 among 366 “Y” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for youth, with forms such as "oyuth", "yotuh", and "youht". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "yuh", "youths", "you", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English youthe, youghte, ȝouþe, from Old English ġeoguþ (“the state of being young; youth”), from Proto-West Germanic *juwunþa, from Proto-Germanic *jugunþō, *jugunþiz (“youth”), corresponding to young + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate wi… The correct English form is youth, spelled Y-O-U-T-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    The quality or state of being young.
  2. 2
    The part of life following childhood; the period of existence preceding maturity or age; the whole early part of life, from childhood, or, sometimes, from infancy, to adulthood.
  3. 3
    A young person.
  4. 4
    A young man; a male adolescent or young adult.
  5. 5
    Young persons, collectively.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  2. Feel awfully about Scott... It was a terrible thing for him to love youth so much that he jumped straight from youth to senility without going through manhood. The minute he felt youth going he was frightened again and thought there was nothing between youth and age.

Etymology

From Middle English youthe, youghte, ȝouþe, from Old English ġeoguþ (“the state of being young; youth”), from Proto-West Germanic *juwunþa, from Proto-Germanic *jugunþō, *jugunþiz (“youth”), corresponding to young + -th (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Juugd, West Frisian jeugd, Dutch jeugd, German Low German Jöögd, German Jugend.

This word in other languages

juventud(Español)jeunesse(Français)Jugend(Deutsch)juventude(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oyuth
  • yotuh
  • youht
  • youthh
  • youtth
  • yuoth
  • yyouth

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of youth - 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.

oyuth2yotuh2youht2youthh1youtth1yuoth2yyouth1
Edit distance from "youth"

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 "youth"?
"youth" is spelled Y-O-U-T-H. The IPA pronunciation is /juːθ/.
What does "youth" mean?
As a noun, "youth" means: The quality or state of being young.
What words are commonly confused with "youth"?
"youth" is commonly confused with "yuh", "youths", "you". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "youth"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "youth" is /juːθ/. 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 "youth"?
From Middle English youthe, youghte, ȝouþe, from Old English ġeoguþ (“the state of being young; youth”), from Proto-West Germanic *juwunþa, from Proto-Germanic *jugunþō, *jugunþiz (“youth”), corresponding to young + -th (abstract nominal suffix). ... 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 "youth", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

yours#1,849treat#1,844funds#1,862helps#1,863

Similar misspelling depth

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

bigger7 variantsunique7 variantsoffers7 variantssites7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list