isle
/aɪ̯l/
"isle" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“isle” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,198 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,198
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An island, usually very small. Compare with islet.
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 | isle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /aɪ̯l/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #9,198 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “isle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for isle is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /aɪ̯l/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,198 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An island, usually very small. Compare with islet.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for isle, with forms such as "ilse", "isel", and "islle". 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, "iso", "ISS", "ISP", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ile, yle (with s added, similar to English island), borrowed from Old French ille, idle, isle, from Latin insula. Not related to island. Doublet of insula. The correct English form is isle, spelled I-S-L-E.
Definition
- 1An island, usually very small. Compare with islet.
Etymology
From Middle English ile, yle (with s added, similar to English island), borrowed from Old French ille, idle, isle, from Latin insula. Not related to island. Doublet of insula.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ilse,isel,islle,issle,sile
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of isle - 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 “isle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-S-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /aɪ̯l/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “iso” - see the side-by-side comparison. isle vs iso
- 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.