culvert
/ˈkʌlvə(ɹ)t/
"culvert" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“culvert” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #49,855 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #49,855
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A channel crossing under a road or railway for the draining of water.
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 | culvert |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʌlvə(ɹ)t/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #49,855 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “culvert” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for culvert is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkʌlvə(ɹ)t/. Corpus data places it at rank #49,855 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A channel crossing under a road or railway for the draining of water.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for culvert, with forms such as "cculvert", "cluvert", and "culevrt". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "covert", "culver", "convert", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Origin obscure, with a number of possible etymologies suggested: * a dialectal word, * a word related to the name of the now-forgotten inventor, * a derivation from French couvert (“covered”), although couvert is not used in this sense and the French transl… The correct English form is culvert, spelled C-U-L-V-E-R-T.
Definition
- 1A channel crossing under a road or railway for the draining of water.
Etymology
Origin obscure, with a number of possible etymologies suggested: * a dialectal word, * a word related to the name of the now-forgotten inventor, * a derivation from French couvert (“covered”), although couvert is not used in this sense and the French translation of culvert is ponceau or buse de drainage, * a derivation from an unrecorded Dutch word, possibly *coul-vaart, a combination of Dutch coul-, from French couler (“to flow”), and Dutch vaart (“a trip by boat, a canal”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cculvert,cluvert,culevrt,cullvert,culverrt,culvertt,culvetr,culvret,culvvert,cuvlert,uclvert
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of culvert - 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
How do you spell "culvert"?
What does "culvert" mean?
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Using “culvert”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-U-L-V-E-R-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkʌlvə(ɹ)t/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “covert” - see the side-by-side comparison. culvert vs covert
- 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.