glance
/ɡlɑːns/
"glance" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“glance” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #8,150. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #8,150
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To turn (one's eyes or look) at something, often briefly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-glance · glance · English
glance · rank #8,150 · 10 variants · 11 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #8,150
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 11 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH genocide
Nearest frequency peer: genocide (-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 “glance”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- fury
fury
91,854 corpus weight
- GB
GB
91,853 corpus weight
- genocide
genocide
91,852 corpus weight
- glance
glance
91,851 corpus weight
- glow
glow
91,850 corpus weight
- hay
hay
91,849 corpus weight
What this shows “glance” 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 | glance |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɡlɑːns/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #8,150 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “glance”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around glance (IPA /ɡlɑːns/), averb. Corpus frequency is #8,150 among 2,313 “G” headwords. Wiktionary lists 18 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for glance, with forms such as "galnce", "gglance", and "glacne". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "grace", "gland", "glare", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenchen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; of a person: to turn quickly aside, dodge”) [and other forms], a blend of: * Old French glacier, glachier, glaichier (“to slide; to slip”) (whence also Middle En… The correct English form is glance, spelled G-L-A-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1To turn (one's eyes or look) at something, often briefly.
- 2To look briefly at (something).
- 3To cause (light) to gleam or sparkle.
- 4To cause (something) to move obliquely.
- 5To cause (something) to move obliquely.
- 6To cause (something) to move obliquely.
- 7To communicate (something) using the eyes.
- 8To touch (something) lightly or obliquely; to graze.
- 9To make an incidental or passing reflection, often unfavourably, on (a topic); also, to make (an incidental or passing reflection, often unfavourable).
- 10To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.
- 11To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.
- 12To strike and fly off in an oblique direction; to dart aside.
- 13Of light, etc.: to gleam, to sparkle.
- 14Of a thing: to move in a way that catches light, and flash or glitter.
- 15Often followed by at: of the eyes or a person: to look briefly.
- 16Often followed by at: of a topic: to make an incidental or passing reflection on, often unfavourably; to allude to; to hint at.
- 17Followed by by: to pass near without coming into contact.
- 18To move quickly; to dart, to shoot.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how glance appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Deare heart forbeare to glance thine eye aſide, / What needſt thou wound with cunning when thy might / Is more then my ore-preſt defence can bide?
Vivian glanced a look, which would have been annihilation to any one, not a freeholder of five hundred acres.
Etymology
The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenchen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; of a person: to turn quickly aside, dodge”) [and other forms], a blend of: * Old French glacier, glachier, glaichier (“to slide; to slip”) (whence also Middle English glacen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; to glide”)), from glace (“frozen water, ice”) (from Vulgar Latin *glacia, from Latin glaciēs (“ice”), of uncertain origin, + -ier (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs); and * Old French guenchir, ganchir (“to avoid; to change direction; to elude, evade”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *wankijan (“to move aside; to stagger, sway; to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bend”). The noun is derived from the verb. The sense "to look briefly (at something)" is probably due to partial conflation with Middle English glenten (“to look askance”)—the ancestor of English glint—in the Middle English period. This conflation may also have reinforced the medial -n-. See English glint
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- galnce
- gglance
- glacne
- glancce
- glanec
- glannce
- glence
- gllance
- glnace
- lgance
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of glance - 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 "glance", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).