gavel
/ˈɡa.vəl/
"gavel" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gavel” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #43,664 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #43,664
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Rent.
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 | gavel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɡa.vəl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #43,664 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gavel” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for gavel is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡa.vəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #43,664 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 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 gavel, with forms such as "agvel", "gaevl", and "gavell". 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, "gel", "give", "gaze", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English gavel, from Old English gafol, from Proto-West Germanic *gabul, from Proto-Germanic *gabulą, from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”), equivalent to give + -el. The correct English form is gavel, spelled G-A-V-E-L.
Definition
- 1Rent.
- 2Usury; interest on money.
- 3An old Saxon and Welsh form of tenure by which an estate passed, on the holder's death, to all the sons equally; also called gavelkind.
Etymology
From Middle English gavel, from Old English gafol, from Proto-West Germanic *gabul, from Proto-Germanic *gabulą, from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”), equivalent to give + -el.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: agvel,gaevl,gavell,gavle,gavvel,ggavel,gvael
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gavel - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “gavel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-A-V-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡa.vəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “gel” - see the side-by-side comparison. gavel vs gel
- 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.