folio
/ˈfəʊlɪəʊ/
"folio" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“folio” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #25,063 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #25,063
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A leaf of a book or manuscript.
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 | folio |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfəʊlɪəʊ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #25,063 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “folio” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for folio is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfəʊlɪəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #25,063 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 9 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 folio, with forms such as "ffolio", "floio", and "foilo". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "foo", "folk", "FOMO", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English folio (“leaf of a book”), borrowed from Medieval Latin foliō, Late Latin foliō, Latin foliō, the ablative singular form of Late Latin folium (“leaf or sheet of paper”), Latin folium (“leaf of a plant”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-Europea… The correct English form is folio, spelled F-O-L-I-O.
Definition
- 1A leaf of a book or manuscript.
- 2A page of a book, that is, one side of a leaf of a book.
- 3A page number. The even folios are on the left-hand pages and the odd folios on the right-hand pages.
- 4A sheet of paper folded in half.
- 5A book made of sheets of paper each folded in half (two leaves or four pages to the sheet); hence, a book of the largest kind, exceeding 30 centimetres in height.
- 6A wrapper for loose papers.
- 7A page in an account book; sometimes, two opposite pages bearing the same serial number.
- 8A protective case with a flap that folds to cover the screen of a mobile device.
- 9A leaf containing a certain number of words; hence, a certain number of words in a piece of writing, as in England, in law proceedings 72, and in chancery, 90; in New York, 100 words.
Etymology
From Middle English folio (“leaf of a book”), borrowed from Medieval Latin foliō, Late Latin foliō, Latin foliō, the ablative singular form of Late Latin folium (“leaf or sheet of paper”), Latin folium (“leaf of a plant”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“bloom, flower”). Doublet of foil and folium, and distantly related to phyllo and phyllon. Senses 1, 2, 3.1, 5, and 6 relating to a leaf or page are derived from Medieval Latin foliō in references; sense 5 (“page in an account book”) may be derived from Italian foglio (“rectangular sheet of paper”), from Latin folium. Senses 3.2 and 3.3 relating to a paper size are from Italian in foglio or its etymon Latin in foliō.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffolio,floio,foilo,follio,foloi,oflio
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of folio - 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.
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 "folio"?
What does "folio" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "folio"?
How do you pronounce "folio"?
What is the origin of the word "folio"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “folio”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-L-I-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfəʊlɪəʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “foo” - see the side-by-side comparison. folio vs foo
- 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.