drown
/dɹaʊn/
"drown" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“drown” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,534 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #11,534
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.
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 | drown |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /dɹaʊn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #11,534 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “drown” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for drown is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɹaʊn/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,534 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for drown, with forms such as "ddrown", "dorwn", and "dronw". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "drowns", "drowsy", "drowned", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English drownen, drounen, drunen (“to drown”), of obscure and uncertain origin. The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drūnian. Harper 2001 points to Old English druncnian, ġedruncnian (> Middle English drunknen, dronknen (“to drown”))… The correct English form is drown, spelled D-R-O-W-N.
Definition
- 1To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.
- 2To kill by suffocating in water or another liquid.
- 3To be flooded: to be inundated with or submerged in (literally) water or (figuratively) other things; to be overwhelmed.
- 4To inundate, submerge, overwhelm.
- 5To obscure, particularly amid an overwhelming volume of other items.
Etymology
From Middle English drownen, drounen, drunen (“to drown”), of obscure and uncertain origin. The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drūnian. Harper 2001 points to Old English druncnian, ġedruncnian (> Middle English drunknen, dronknen (“to drown”)), "probably influenced" by Old Norse drukkna (cf. Icelandic drukkna, Danish drukne (“to drown”)). Funk & Wagnall's has 'of uncertain origin'. It has been theorised (see e.g. ODS) that it may represent a direct loan of Old Norse drukkna, but this is described by the OED as being "on phonetic and other grounds [...] highly improbable", unless one considers the possibility of an unattested variant in Old Norse *drunkna.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddrown,dorwn,dronw,drownn,drowwn,drrown,drwon,rdown
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of drown - 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 “drown”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-R-O-W-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɹaʊn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “drowns” - see the side-by-side comparison. drown vs drowns
- 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.