sell

[sɛl]

/[sɛl]/ noun

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

The verdict

“sell” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #28,387) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#28,387
frequency rank, German
8,027
“S” headwords
3
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Transaktion Ware gegen Geld: Verkauf

Corpus desk

Index DE-sell · sell · German

sell · rank #28,387 · 3 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #28,387
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 3 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,027
  • PHOTO-FINISH Schätzchen

Nearest frequency peer: Schätzchen (-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.

Häufigkeitsnachbarn des Verwechslers „sell“

Peers mit ähnlichem Corpus-Gewicht, getrennt von den Verwechslungspaaren unten

corpus weight

What this shows Balken platzieren „sell“ gegen die nächsten gerankten deutschen Lemmata, kein Reprint der Verwechslungsdesk.

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).

sell vs Sex
25% similar
sell vs set
50% similar
sell vs Sol
25% similar

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

Key facts for sell
PropertyValue
Headwordsell
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[sɛl]
Letters4
Frequency rank#28,387
Misspellings tracked3
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus-Rang neben Verwechslern von „sell“

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.sellliegt auf dieser Marke:

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

Die Achse ist logarithmisch: jeder Tick markiert etwa zehnfach geringere Häufigkeit. Peers derselben Seltenheitsbandbreite: „Schätzchen“ (#28,386), „Sicherheiten“ (#28,389), „sido“ (#28,390). Unter 8,027 „S“-Lemmata liegt „sell“ bei #28,387. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for sell is neighbouring look-alikes ("Sex", "set", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [sɛl]. Frequency #28,387 among 8,027 “S” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for sell, with forms such as "esll", "slel", and "ssell". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Sex", "set", "Sol", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct German form is sell, spelled S-E-L-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Transaktion Ware gegen Geld: Verkauf
  2. 2
    Enttäuschung, Betrug: Reinfall, Schwindel

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. “Women marched throughout the street in the cold winter checking to make sure that no sells were made in the saloons.”
  2. What a sell!

Synonyms

salesellingletdown

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • esll
  • slel
  • ssell

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

esll2slel2ssell1
Edit distance from "sell"

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sell"?
"sell" is spelled S-E-L-L. The IPA pronunciation is [sɛl].
What does "sell" mean?
As a noun, "sell" means: Transaktion Ware gegen Geld: Verkauf
What words are commonly confused with "sell"?
"sell" is commonly confused with "Sex", "set", "Sol". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "sell"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sell" is [sɛl]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sell" come from?
"sell" is a German word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 German words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sido#28,390rudy#28,369Riff#28,362Tora#28,421

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list