decline
/dɪˈklaɪn/
"decline" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“decline” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,617 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,617
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Downward movement, fall.
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 | decline |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɪˈklaɪn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #3,617 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “decline” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for decline is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪˈklaɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,617 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for decline, with forms such as "dceline", "ddecline", and "deccline". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "define", "Devlin", "Devine", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English declinen, and ultimately Latin declīnō (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”, from dē- (“down”) + clīnō (“to bend, to incline”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean). The senses arrived from two separate pathways i… The correct English form is decline, spelled D-E-C-L-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1Downward movement, fall.
- 2A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.
- 3A deterioration of condition; a weakening or worsening.
- 4A reduction or diminution of activity, prevalence or quantity.
- 5The act of declining or refusing something.
Etymology
From Middle English declinen, and ultimately Latin declīnō (“to bend, turn aside, deflect, inflect, decline”, from dē- (“down”) + clīnō (“to bend, to incline”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (English lean). The senses arrived from two separate pathways in Middle English: * The grammatical sense came from Old English declīnian, which was borrowed directly from the Latin etymon. * All senses except the grammatical sense were derived from those of Old French decliner. Old French itself borrowed the verb from Latin.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: dceline,ddecline,deccline,decilne,declien,declinne,declline,declnie,delcine,edcline
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of decline - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “decline”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-C-L-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɪˈklaɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “define” - see the side-by-side comparison. decline vs define
- 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.