flight

/flaɪt/

//flaɪt// noun

"flight" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“flight” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,453. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,453
frequency rank, English
2,507
“F” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
8
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of flying.

Corpus desk

Index EN-flight · flight · English

flight · rank #1,453 · 10 variants · 8 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,453
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-MID 8 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,507
  • PHOTO-FINISH evening

Nearest frequency peer: evening (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “flight”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “flight” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

flight vs flint
67% similar
flight vs flirt
67% similar
flight vs fought
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for flight
PropertyValue
Headwordflight
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/flaɪt/
Letters6
Frequency rank#1,453
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs8
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “flight”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).flightlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “evening” (#1,452), “freedom” (#1,454), “division” (#1,451). Among 2,507 “F” headwords, “flight” is #1,453. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around flight (IPA /flaɪt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,453 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 19 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for flight, with forms such as "fflight", "filght", and "flgiht". 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 8 confusable-pair relationships, "flint", "flirt", "fought", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *plew- Proto-Indo-European *plewk-der. Proto-Germanic *fleuganą Proto-West Germanic *fleugan Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Germanic *-þiz Proto-West Germanic *-þi Proto-West Germanic *fluhti Old English flyht Middle Engl… The correct English form is flight, spelled F-L-I-G-H-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act of flying.
  2. 2
    An instance of flying.
  3. 3
    A collective term for doves or swallows.
  4. 4
    A trip made by an aircraft, particularly one between two cities or countries, which is often planned or reserved in advance.
  5. 5
    A series of stairs between landings.
  6. 6
    A group of canal locks with a short distance between them
  7. 7
    A floor which is reached by stairs or escalators.
  8. 8
    The feathers on an arrow or dart used to help it follow an even path.
  9. 9
    A paper airplane.
  10. 10
    The movement of a spinning ball through the air, with its speed, trajectory and drift.
  11. 11
    The ballistic trajectory of an arrow or other projectile.
  12. 12
    An aerodynamic surface designed to guide such a projectile's trajectory.
  13. 13
    An air force unit.
  14. 14
    A numbered subclass of a given class of warship, denoting incremental modernizations to the original design.
  15. 15
    Several sample glasses of a specific wine varietal or other beverage. The pours are smaller than a full glass and the flight will generally include three to five different samples.
  16. 16
    A comparable sample of beers or other drinks.
  17. 17
    The shaped material forming the thread of a screw.
  18. 18
    An episode of imaginative thinking or dreaming.
  19. 19
    An advertising campaign of fixed length.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how flight appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Most birds are capable of flight.
  2. The migrating birds' flight took them to Africa.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *plew- Proto-Indo-European *plewk-der. Proto-Germanic *fleuganą Proto-West Germanic *fleugan Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Germanic *-þiz Proto-West Germanic *-þi Proto-West Germanic *fluhti Old English flyht Middle English flight English flight From Middle English flight, from Old English flyht (“flight”), from Proto-West Germanic *fluhti (“flight”), derived from *fleuganą (“to fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly”), enlargement of *plew- (“flow”). Analyzable as fly + -t (variant of -th). Cognate with West Frisian flecht (“flight”), Dutch vlucht (“flight”), German Flucht (“flight”) (etymology 2).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • fflight
  • filght
  • flgiht
  • fligght
  • flighht
  • flightt
  • fligth
  • flihgt
  • fllight
  • lfight

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of flight - 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.

fflight1filght2flgiht2fligght1flighht1flightt1fligth2flihgt2
Edit distance from "flight"

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 "flight"?
"flight" is spelled F-L-I-G-H-T. The IPA pronunciation is /flaɪt/.
What does "flight" mean?
As a noun, "flight" means: The act of flying.
What words are commonly confused with "flight"?
"flight" is commonly confused with "flint", "flirt", "fought". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "flight"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "flight" is /flaɪt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "flight"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *plew- Proto-Indo-European *plewk-der. Proto-Germanic *fleuganą Proto-West Germanic *fleugan Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Germanic *-þiz Proto-West Germanic *-þi Proto-West Germanic *fluhti Old English flyht M... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "flight", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list