floe
/fləʊ/
"floe" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“floe” is an uncommon English word, ranked #79,517 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #79,517
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A low, flat mass of floating ice.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | floe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fləʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #79,517 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “floe” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for floe is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fləʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #79,517 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A low, flat mass of floating ice.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for floe, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Early 19th century. Probably from Norwegian Nynorsk flo (“layer, slab”), from Old Norse fló (“layer”). The correct English form is floe, spelled F-L-O-E.
Definition
- 1A low, flat mass of floating ice.
Etymology
Early 19th century. Probably from Norwegian Nynorsk flo (“layer, slab”), from Old Norse fló (“layer”).
This word in other languages
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 “floe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-L-O-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fləʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.