dwell
/dwɛl/
"dwell" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dwell” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,505 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,505
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A period of time in which a system or component remains in a given state.
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 | dwell |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dwɛl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #13,505 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dwell” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dwell is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dwɛl/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,505 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 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 dwell, with forms such as "ddwell", "dewll", and "dwel". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "dwelt", "dwells", "dweller", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰwel-der. Proto-Germanic *dwalaz Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *dwaljaną Proto-West Germanic *dwalljan Old English dwellan ▲ Old Norse dveljainflu. Middle English dwellen English dwell F… The correct English form is dwell, spelled D-W-E-L-L.
Definition
- 1A period of time in which a system or component remains in a given state.
- 2A brief pause in the motion of part of a mechanism to allow an operation to be completed.
- 3A planned delay in a timed control program.
- 4In a petrol engine, the period of time the ignition points are closed to let current flow through the ignition coil in between each spark. This is measured as an angle in degrees around the camshaft in the distributor which controls the points, for example in a 4-cylinder engine it might be 55° (spark at 90° intervals, points closed for 55° between each).
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰwel-der. Proto-Germanic *dwalaz Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *dwaljaną Proto-West Germanic *dwalljan Old English dwellan ▲ Old Norse dveljainflu. Middle English dwellen English dwell From Middle English dwellen (“delay, live, remain, persist”), from Old English dwellan (“to mislead, deceive; be led into error, stray”), from Proto-Germanic *dwaljaną (“to hold up, delay; hesitate”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwelH- (“to whirl, swirl, blur, obfuscate”), which is cognate with Old Norse dvelja and related to Proto-Germanic *dwelaną (“to go astray”), which underwent semantic change in its descendants. Cognates include Danish dvæle (“to linger, dwell”) and Swedish dväljas (“to dwell, reside”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddwell,dewll,dwel,dwlel,dwwell,wdell
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dwell - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “dwell”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-W-E-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dwɛl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “dwelt” - see the side-by-side comparison. dwell vs dwelt
- 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.