cinder
/ˈsɪndɚ/
"cinder" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cinder” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #30,365 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #30,365
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 14
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Partially or mostly burnt material that results from incomplete combustion of coal or wood etc.; it often rides the rising smoke column into the air, and it can pose a fire hazard when it lands, in...
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 | cinder |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪndɚ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #30,365 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cinder” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cinder is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɪndɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #30,365 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for cinder, with forms such as "ccinder", "cidner", and "cindder". 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 14 confusable-pair relationships, "cine", "Cindy", "conde", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English cyndyr, syndir, synder, sinder, from Old English sinder (“cinder, dross, slag, scoria, dross of iron, impurity of metal”), from Proto-West Germanic *sindr, from Proto-Germanic *sindrą, *sindraz (“dross, cinder, slag”), from Proto-Indo-Eu… The correct English form is cinder, spelled C-I-N-D-E-R.
Definition
- 1Partially or mostly burnt material that results from incomplete combustion of coal or wood etc.; it often rides the rising smoke column into the air, and it can pose a fire hazard when it lands, in dry conditions.
- 2An ember.
- 3Slag from a metal furnace.
- 4Any strong stimulant added to tea, soda water, etc.
Etymology
From Middle English cyndyr, syndir, synder, sinder, from Old English sinder (“cinder, dross, slag, scoria, dross of iron, impurity of metal”), from Proto-West Germanic *sindr, from Proto-Germanic *sindrą, *sindraz (“dross, cinder, slag”), from Proto-Indo-European *sendʰro- (“coagulating fluid, liquid slag, scale, cinder”). Cognate with Scots sinder (“ember, cinder”), West Frisian sindel, sintel (“cinder, slag”), Dutch sintel (“cinder, ember, slag”), Middle Low German sinder, sinter (“cinder, slag”), German Sinter (“dross of iron, scale”), Danish sinder (“spark of ignited iron, cinder”), Swedish sinder (“slag or dross from a forge”), Icelandic sindur (“scoring”), Old Church Slavonic сѧдра (sędra, “lime cinder, gypsum”). Spelling (c- for s-) influenced by unrelated French cendre (“ashes”). Doublet of sinter.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccinder,cidner,cindder,cinderr,cindre,cinedr,cinnder,cnider,icnder
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cinder - 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.
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 “cinder”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-I-N-D-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsɪndɚ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cine” - see the side-by-side comparison. cinder vs cine
- 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.