dish
/dɪʃ/
"dish" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dish” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,028 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,028
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle.
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 | dish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,028 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dish” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dish is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,028 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for dish, with forms such as "ddish", "dihs", and "dishh". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "DS", "DIY", "DOS", 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 dissh, disch, from Old English disċ (“plate; bowl; dish”), from Proto-West Germanic *disk (“table; dish”) (whence also Proto-Slavic *dъska, whence Bulgarian дъска́ (dǎská), Polish deska, Russian доска́ (doská)), Russian чан (čan)) from L… The correct English form is dish, spelled D-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle.
- 2The contents of such a vessel.
- 3A specific type of prepared food.
- 4Tableware (including cutlery, etc, as well as crockery) that is to be or is being washed after being used to prepare, serve and eat a meal.
- 5A type of antenna with a similar shape to a plate or bowl.
- 6A sexually attractive person.
- 7The state of being concave, like a dish, or the degree of such concavity.
- 8A hollow place, as in a field.
- 9The home plate.
- 10A trough in which ore is measured.
- 11That portion of the produce of a mine which is paid to the land owner or proprietor.
- 12Gossip.
Etymology
From Middle English dissh, disch, from Old English disċ (“plate; bowl; dish”), from Proto-West Germanic *disk (“table; dish”) (whence also Proto-Slavic *dъska, whence Bulgarian дъска́ (dǎská), Polish deska, Russian доска́ (doská)), Russian чан (čan)) from Latin discus. Doublet of dais, desk, disc, discus, disk, and diskos. Cognates Cognate with Scots disch (“dish; plate”), Dutch dis (“table”), German Low German Disk, Disch (“table”), German Tisch (“table”), Danish disk (“dish; counter”), Swedish disk (“dish; counter”), Icelandic diskur (“dish; plate”), Finnish tiski (“desk, counter; dish”). Compare the identical meaning expansion (vessel for food, then also content of such a vessel, then also specific type of food): Bulgarian блю́до (bljúdo), Russian блю́до (bljúdo). For the roundness aspect compare Polish rondel (“pan, saucepan”) (< Latin rotundus (whence also English round)). Also compare typologically Proto-Slavic *misъka << Latin mēnsa; Ancient Greek πίναξ (pínax) (several meanings).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddish,dihs,dishh,dissh,dsih,idsh
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dish - 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
How do you spell "dish"?
What does "dish" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "dish"?
How do you pronounce "dish"?
What is the origin of the word "dish"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “dish”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɪʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “DS” - see the side-by-side comparison. dish vs DS
- 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.