fluke
/fluːk/
"fluke" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fluke” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #24,159. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #24,159
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A lucky or improbable occurrence that could probably never be repeated.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fluke · fluke · English
fluke · rank #24,159 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #24,159
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH finisher
Nearest frequency peer: finisher (-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 “fluke”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- fave
fave
75,845 corpus weight
- finisher
finisher
75,843 corpus weight
- fluke
fluke
75,842 corpus weight
- fondness
fondness
75,841 corpus weight
- FSA
FSA
75,840 corpus weight
- furnish
furnish
75,839 corpus weight
What this shows “fluke” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | fluke |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fluːk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #24,159 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “fluke”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around fluke (IPA /fluːk/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #24,159 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A lucky or improbable occurrence that could probably never be repeated.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for fluke, with forms such as "ffluke", "flkue", and "flluke". 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, "fuse", "flux", "fume", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Unknown, perhaps dialectal. It seems to have originally referred to a lucky shot at billiards. Possibly connected to sense 3, referring to whales' use of flukes to move rapidly. Possibly derived from German Glück (“luck, good fortune, happiness”). The correct English form is fluke, spelled F-L-U-K-E.
Definition
- 1A lucky or improbable occurrence that could probably never be repeated.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fluke appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We've classified by a fluke; actually, the first goal was just a total fluke.
“[…] That's the first time in the history of Bierce's Cove that two men made that jump on the same sea. And all the risk was yours, coming last.” “It was a fluke,” Billy insisted.
Etymology
Unknown, perhaps dialectal. It seems to have originally referred to a lucky shot at billiards. Possibly connected to sense 3, referring to whales' use of flukes to move rapidly. Possibly derived from German Glück (“luck, good fortune, happiness”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ffluke
- flkue
- flluke
- fluek
- flukke
- fulke
- lfuke
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fluke - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fluke", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).