guilty
/ˈɡɪl.ti/
"guilty" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“guilty” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,445 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #2,445
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Responsible for a dishonest act.
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 | guilty |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɡɪl.ti/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,445 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “guilty” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for guilty is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡɪl.ti/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,445 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 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 guilty, with forms such as "gguilty", "giulty", and "guillty". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "gully", "gusty", "gilt", 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 gilty, gulty, from Old English gyltiġ (“offending, guilty”); equivalent to guilt + -y. The correct English form is guilty, spelled G-U-I-L-T-Y.
Definition
- 1Responsible for a dishonest act.
- 2Judged to have committed a crime.
- 3Having a sense of guilt.
- 4Blameworthy.
Etymology
From Middle English gilty, gulty, from Old English gyltiġ (“offending, guilty”); equivalent to guilt + -y.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: gguilty,giulty,guillty,guiltty,guiltyy,guilyt,guitly,gulity,ugilty
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of guilty - 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
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Using “guilty”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-U-I-L-T-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡɪl.ti/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “gully” - see the side-by-side comparison. guilty vs gully
- 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.