colon
/ˈkəʊ.lən/
"colon" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“colon” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,945 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,945
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The punctuation mark ⟨:⟩.
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 | colon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkəʊ.lən/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #12,945 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “colon” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for colon is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkəʊ.lən/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,945 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 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for colon, with forms such as "ccolon", "cloon", and "collon". 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, "con", "coo", "cool", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin cōlon (“a member of a verse of poem”), from Ancient Greek κῶλον (kôlon, “a member, limb, clause, part of a verse”). The correct English form is colon, spelled C-O-L-O-N.
Definition
- 1The punctuation mark ⟨:⟩.
- 2The triangular colon (especially in context of not being able to type the actual triangular colon).
- 3A rhetorical figure consisting of a clause which is grammatically, but not logically, complete.
- 4A clause or group of clauses written as a line, or taken as a standard of measure in ancient manuscripts or texts.
Etymology
From Latin cōlon (“a member of a verse of poem”), from Ancient Greek κῶλον (kôlon, “a member, limb, clause, part of a verse”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccolon,cloon,collon,colno,colonn,cooln,oclon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of colon - 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 “colon”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-L-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkəʊ.lən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “con” - see the side-by-side comparison. colon vs con
- 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.