Hindu
/ˈhɪnduː/
"hindu" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Hindu” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,138 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #7,138
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 16
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of, or relating to Hinduism, or to Hindus and their culture.
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 | Hindu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈhɪnduː/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,138 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Hindu” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Hindu is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhɪnduː/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,138 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Of, or relating to Hinduism, or to Hindus and their culture.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Hindu, with forms such as "hhindu", "hidnu", and "hinddu". 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 16 confusable-pair relationships, "hint", "hing", "honda", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Derived from Classical Persian هِنْدُو (hindū, “Indian, Hindu”), from Middle Persian hndwk' (Hindūg, “Indian”), from hnd (Hind, “India”), from Old Persian 𐏃𐎡𐎯𐎢 (hiⁿdu-, “India”), from Sanskrit सिन्धु (síndhu, “river, stream; Indus”), from Proto-Indo-Ary… The correct English form is Hindu, spelled H-I-N-D-U.
Definition
- 1Of, or relating to Hinduism, or to Hindus and their culture.
Etymology
Derived from Classical Persian هِنْدُو (hindū, “Indian, Hindu”), from Middle Persian hndwk' (Hindūg, “Indian”), from hnd (Hind, “India”), from Old Persian 𐏃𐎡𐎯𐎢 (hiⁿdu-, “India”), from Sanskrit सिन्धु (síndhu, “river, stream; Indus”), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *síndʰuṣ, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *síndʰuš (“river”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hhindu,hidnu,hinddu,hinndu,hinud,hnidu,ihndu
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Hindu - 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
How do you spell "Hindu"?
What does "Hindu" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "Hindu"?
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Using “Hindu”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-I-N-D-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhɪnduː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “hint” - see the side-by-side comparison. Hindu vs hint
- 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.