ah

\aː\

/\aː\/ onomatopoeia

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

The verdict

“ah” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #396) as an onomatopoeia. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#396
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cri d’horreur ou d’effroi, en particulier lors d’une chute.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ah · ah · French

ah · rank #396 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #396
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH afin

Nearest frequency peer: afin (-1 rank slots)

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 “ah”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “ah” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

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).

ah vs au
50% similar
ah vs As
0% similar
ah vs an
50% similar

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

Key facts for ah
PropertyValue
Headwordah
LanguageFrench
Part of speechOnomatopoeia
IPA\aː\
Letters2
Frequency rank#396
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “ah” se place dans la fréquence du français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).ahse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « afin » (#395), « aide » (#397), « type » (#394). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ah is neighbouring look-alikes ("au", "As", …), not just typos; it is anonomatopoeia pronounced \aː\. Frequency #396 among 6,727 “A” headwords. Gloss: "Cri d’horreur ou d’effroi, en particulier lors d’une chute.".

Zero misspellings are on record for ah 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, "au", "As", "an", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is ah, spelled A-H.

Definition

  1. 1
    Cri d’horreur ou d’effroi, en particulier lors d’une chute.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Si je recule encore je vais tomber dans le trou derrière moi aaaaah... - Aaaaaah ! Tu m’as fichu la trouille !

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ah"?
"ah" is spelled A-H. The IPA pronunciation is \aː\.
What does "ah" mean?
As an onomatopoeia, "ah" means: Cri d’horreur ou d’effroi, en particulier lors d’une chute.
What words are commonly confused with "ah"?
"ah" is commonly confused with "au", "As", "an". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ah"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ah" is \aː\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ah" come from?
"ah" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

What to do next

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PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list