ab
[ˈaβ̞]
The verdict
“ab” is a moderately-common Spanish word, ranked #11,338 in Spanish word frequency and used as a preposition.
- #11,338
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Preposición que indica generalmente separación, alejamiento, privación de la cosa o acción significada por el simple.
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 | ab |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Preposition |
| IPA | [ˈaβ̞] |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #11,338 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ab” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for ab is 2 letters long, classified as a preposition, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈaβ̞]. Corpus data places it at rank #11,338 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Preposición que indica generalmente separación, alejamiento, privación de la cosa o acción significada por el simple.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for ab in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "al", "ah", "ay", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct Spanish form is ab, spelled A-B.
Definition
- 1Preposición que indica generalmente separación, alejamiento, privación de la cosa o acción significada por el simple.
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 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “ab”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is A-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈaβ̞] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “al” - see the side-by-side comparison. ab vs al
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish 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.