flour
/ˈflaʊ̯.ə/
"flour" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“flour” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,135 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,135
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Powder obtained by grinding or milling cereal grains, especially wheat, or other foodstuffs such as soybeans and potatoes, and used to bake bread, cakes, and pastry.
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 | flour |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈflaʊ̯.ə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,135 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “flour” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for flour is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈflaʊ̯.ə/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,135 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for flour, with forms such as "fflour", "fllour", and "floru". 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, "for", "fur", "flu", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Spelled (until about 1830) and meaning flower in the sense of flour being the "finest portion of ground grain" (compare French fleur de farine, fine fleur). Doublet of fleur, flor, and flower. Partially displaced native meal. The U.S. standard of identity c… The correct English form is flour, spelled F-L-O-U-R.
Definition
- 1Powder obtained by grinding or milling cereal grains, especially wheat, or other foodstuffs such as soybeans and potatoes, and used to bake bread, cakes, and pastry.
- 2The food made by grinding and bolting cleaned wheat (not durum or red durum) until it meets specified levels of fineness, dryness, and freedom from bran and germ, also containing any of certain enzymes, ascorbic acid, and certain bleaching agents.
- 3Powder of other material.
- 4Obsolete form of flower.
Etymology
Spelled (until about 1830) and meaning flower in the sense of flour being the "finest portion of ground grain" (compare French fleur de farine, fine fleur). Doublet of fleur, flor, and flower. Partially displaced native meal. The U.S. standard of identity comes from 21CFR137.105.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: fflour,fllour,floru,flourr,fluor,folur,lfour
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of flour - 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 “flour”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-L-O-U-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈflaʊ̯.ə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “for” - see the side-by-side comparison. flour vs for
- 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.