hailstone
/ˈheɪlstoʊn/
"hailstone" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hailstone” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A single ball of hail, or solid precipitation
Corpus desk
Index EN-hailstone · hailstone · English
hailstone · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hailstone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈheɪlstoʊn/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “hailstone” in English
Rare enough to double-check
hailstone is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈheɪlstoʊn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A single ball of hail, or solid precipitation".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for hailstone, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hailston, haylestone, hawelston, hawleston, from Old English hagolstān (“hailstone”), from Proto-West Germanic *haglastain, from Proto-Germanic *haglastainaz, equivalent to hail + stone. Cognate with West Frisian heilstien (“hailstone”),… The correct English form is hailstone, spelled H-A-I-L-S-T-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1A single ball of hail, or solid precipitation
Etymology
From Middle English hailston, haylestone, hawelston, hawleston, from Old English hagolstān (“hailstone”), from Proto-West Germanic *haglastain, from Proto-Germanic *haglastainaz, equivalent to hail + stone. Cognate with West Frisian heilstien (“hailstone”), Saterland Frisian Hailsteen (“hailstone”), Dutch hagelsteen (“hailstone”), German Low German Hagelsteen (“hailstone”), German Hagelstein (“hailstone”), Swedish hagelsten (“hailstone”), Icelandic haglsteinn (“hailstone”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.