ci
"ci" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ci” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,294 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,294
- frequency rank, English
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - One of the Classical Chinese poetry forms
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 | ci |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #14,294 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ci” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ci is 2 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #14,294 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "One of the Classical Chinese poetry forms".
ci has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "co", "CM", "CT", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Mandarin 詞／词 (cí). The correct English form is ci, spelled C-I.
Definition
- 1One of the Classical Chinese poetry forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Mandarin 詞／词 (cí).
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 “ci”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “co” - see the side-by-side comparison. ci vs co
- 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.