king
/ˈkɪŋ/
"king" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“king” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #697 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #697
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A male monarch; a man who heads a monarchy; in an absolute monarchy, the supreme ruler of his nation.
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 | king |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #697 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “king” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for king is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #697 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for king, with forms such as "ikng", "kign", and "kingg". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "kit", "kun", "kip", 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 king, kyng, from Old English cyng, cyning (“king”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuning, from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz, *kunungaz (“king”), equivalent to kin + -ing. Doublet of cyning and knez. Cognate with Scots king, keeng (“king”), North… The correct English form is king, spelled K-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1A male monarch; a man who heads a monarchy; in an absolute monarchy, the supreme ruler of his nation.
- 2The monarch with the most power and authority in a monarchy, regardless of sex.
- 3A male leader of a traditional Aboriginal group, often used as a title by colonists.
- 4A powerful or majorly influential person; someone who holds the preeminent position.
- 5Something that has a preeminent position.
- 6A component of certain games.
- 7A component of certain games.
- 8A component of certain games.
- 9A component of certain games.
- 10A king skin.
- 11A male dragonfly; a drake.
- 12A king-sized bed.
- 13A vertex in a directed graph which can reach every other vertex via a path with a length of at most 2.
Etymology
From Middle English king, kyng, from Old English cyng, cyning (“king”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuning, from Proto-Germanic *kuningaz, *kunungaz (“king”), equivalent to kin + -ing. Doublet of cyning and knez. Cognate with Scots king, keeng (“king”), North Frisian kining, köning (“king”), Saterland Frisian Kening (“king”), West Frisian kening (“king”), Dutch koning (“king”), Low German Koning, Köning (“king”), German König (“king”), Danish konge (“king”), Swedish konung, kung (“king”), Norwegian konge (“king”), Icelandic konungur, kóngur (“king”), Polish ksiądz (“priest”), Russian князь (knjazʹ, “prince”), Old Church Slavonic кънѧѕь (kŭnędzĭ), Romanian chinez, Finnish kuningas (“king”), Estonian kuningas, Ingrian kunigas, Veps kunigaz and Võro kuning. Eclipsed non-native Middle English roy (“king”) (Early Modern English roy), borrowed from Old French roi, rei, rai (“king”). The verb is inherited from Middle English kingen, kyngen (“to perform the duties of a king”), itself from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ikng,kign,kingg,kinng,kking,knig
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of king - 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 “king”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “kit” - see the side-by-side comparison. king vs kit
- 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.