island
/ˈaɪlənd/
"island" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“island” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,052 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,052
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A contiguous area of land, smaller than a continent, totally surrounded by water.
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 | island |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈaɪlənd/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,052 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “island” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for island is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈaɪlənd/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,052 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 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 island, with forms such as "ilsand", "isalnd", and "isladn". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "Islands", "islander", "Isla", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂ Proto-Germanic *awjō Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Germanic *landą Proto-Germanic *awjōlandą Proto-West Germanic *auwjuland Old English īeġland Middle English ilond English iland Engl… The correct English form is island, spelled I-S-L-A-N-D.
Definition
- 1A contiguous area of land, smaller than a continent, totally surrounded by water.
- 2A contiguous area of land, smaller than a continent, partially surrounded by water; a peninsula; a half-island.
- 3An entity surrounded by other entities that are very different from itself.
- 4A superstructure on an aircraft carrier's deck.
- 5A traffic island.
- 6A roundabout; a traffic circle.
- 7A bench, counter, etc., that is not connected to a wall or other furniture and which can be used from any side.
- 8A bench, counter, etc., that is not connected to a wall or other furniture and which can be used from any side.
- 9An unincorporated area wholly surrounded by one or more incorporated areas.
- 10A phrase from which a wh-word cannot be extracted without yielding invalid grammar.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂ Proto-Germanic *awjō Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Germanic *landą Proto-Germanic *awjōlandą Proto-West Germanic *auwjuland Old English īeġland Middle English ilond English iland English island From earlier iland, from Middle English iland, yland, ylond, from Old English īeġland, from Proto-West Germanic *auwjuland, from Proto-Germanic *awjōlandą (from Proto-Germanic *awjō (“island, waterland, meadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂) + *landą (“land”), equivalent to ey + land. Doublet of Öland. Cognate with Scots island, iland, yland (“island”), West Frisian eilân (“island”), Saterland Frisian Ailound (“island”), Dutch eiland (“island”), Low German Eiland (“island”), German Eiland (“island”), Swedish ö (“island”), Öland (“Sweden's second largest island”), Danish ø (“island”), Norwegian øy (“island”), øyland (“large island”), Icelandic eyland (“island”). The insertion of ⟨s⟩—a 16th century spelling modification—is due to a change in spelling to the unrelated term isle, which previously lacked s (cf. Middle English ile, yle). The re-addition was mistakenly carried over to include iland as well. Related also to German Aue (“water-meadow”), Latin aqua (“water”). More at ea.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ilsand,isalnd,isladn,islandd,islannd,islland,islnad,issland,siland
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of island - 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 “island”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-S-L-A-N-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈaɪlənd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Islands” - see the side-by-side comparison. island vs Islands
- 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.