anil
"anil" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“anil” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,451 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #28,451
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The indigo shrub; or the indigo dye obtained from the plant.
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 | anil |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #28,451 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “anil” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for anil is 4 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #28,451 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for anil, with forms such as "ainl", "anill", and "anli". 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, "any", "Ann", "ant", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French anil, Portuguese anil. The correct English form is anil, spelled A-N-I-L.
Definition
- 1The indigo shrub; or the indigo dye obtained from the plant.
- 2Any imine in which the N-radical is a phenyl (or substituted phenyl) group.
- 31,4-Benzoquinones including chloranil, DDQ, bromanil, & cyanil.
Etymology
From Middle French anil, Portuguese anil.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ainl,anill,anli,annil
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of anil - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “anil”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-N-I-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “any” - see the side-by-side comparison. anil vs any
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English 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.