aw
\ɑβ\
The verdict
“aw” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #26,972 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #26,972
- frequency rank, French
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Âgé, vieux, ancien.
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 | aw |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ɑβ\ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #26,972 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “aw” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for aw is 2 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɑβ\. Corpus data places it at rank #26,972 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Âgé, vieux, ancien.".
Zero misspellings are on record for aw in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "az", "ax", "axe", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is aw, spelled A-W.
Definition
- 1Âgé, vieux, ancien.
Synonyms
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
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Using “aw”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is A-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɑβ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “az” - see the side-by-side comparison. aw vs az
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.