gravel
/ˈɡɹævəl/
"gravel" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gravel” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,223 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,223
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railways, and as ballast.
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 | gravel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɡɹævəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #11,223 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gravel” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for gravel is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡɹævəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,223 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for gravel, with forms such as "garvel", "ggravel", and "graevl". 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, "grove", "gravy", "graze", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English gravel, grauel, from Old French gravele, diminutive of grave (“gravel, seashore”), from Medieval Latin grava, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *grāwā (“gravel, pebbles”) (compare Breton groa, Cornish grow, Welsh gro), from Proto-Indo-Europea… The correct English form is gravel, spelled G-R-A-V-E-L.
Definition
- 1Small fragments of rock, used for laying on the beds of roads and railways, and as ballast.
- 2A type or grade of small rocks, differentiated by mineral type, size range, or other characteristics.
- 3A particle from 2 to 64 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
- 4Kidney stones; a deposit of small calculous concretions in the kidneys and the urinary or gall bladder; also, the disease of which they are a symptom.
- 5A lameness in the foot of a horse, usually caused by an abscess.
- 6Inability to see at night; night blindness.
- 7Gravel cycling, a discipline in cycling different from road cycling, mountain biking or cyclocross, for a large part on gravel roads, typically with a dedicated gravel bike.
- 8The stimulant drug alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone.
Etymology
From Middle English gravel, grauel, from Old French gravele, diminutive of grave (“gravel, seashore”), from Medieval Latin grava, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *grāwā (“gravel, pebbles”) (compare Breton groa, Cornish grow, Welsh gro), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰroh₁weh₂, from *gʰreh₁w- (“to grind”). Compare also Old English græfa (“coal”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: garvel,ggravel,graevl,gravell,gravle,gravvel,grravel,grvael,rgavel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gravel - 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 “gravel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-R-A-V-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡɹævəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “grove” - see the side-by-side comparison. gravel vs grove
- 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.