coloured
/ˈkʌl.əd/
"coloured" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“coloured” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,017 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #8,017
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - British standard spelling of colored.
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 | coloured |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈkʌl.əd/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #8,017 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “coloured” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for coloured is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkʌl.əd/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,017 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "British standard spelling of colored.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for coloured, with forms such as "ccoloured", "clooured", and "colloured". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "cultured", "colored", "clouded", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is coloured, spelled C-O-L-O-U-R-E-D.
Definition
- 1British standard spelling of colored.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccoloured,clooured,colloured,colorued,colouerd,colourde,colouredd,colourred,coluored,coolured,ocloured
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of coloured - 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 “coloured”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-L-O-U-R-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkʌl.əd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cultured” - see the side-by-side comparison. coloured vs cultured
- 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.