land

/lænd/

//lænd// noun

"land" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“land” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #608 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#608
frequency rank, English
4
letters
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The part of Earth which is not covered by oceans or other bodies of water.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

land vs LN
0% similar
land vs law
50% similar
land vs LED
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for land
PropertyValue
Headwordland
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/lænd/
Letters4
Frequency rank#608
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “land” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). land lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for land is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /lænd/. Corpus data places it at rank #608 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 17 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 land, with forms such as "alnd", "ladn", and "landd". 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, "LN", "law", "LED", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Germanic *landą Proto-West Germanic *land Old English land Middle English lond English land From Middle English lond, land, from Old English land, from Proto-West Germanic *land, from… The correct English form is land, spelled L-A-N-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    The part of Earth which is not covered by oceans or other bodies of water.
  2. 2
    Real estate or landed property; a partitioned and measurable area which is owned and acquired and on which buildings and structures can be built and erected.
  3. 3
    A country or region.
  4. 4
    A person's country of origin and/or homeplace; homeland.
  5. 5
    The soil, in respect to its nature or quality for farming.
  6. 6
    Realm, domain.
  7. 7
    The ground left unploughed between furrows.
  8. 8
    Any of several portions into which a field is divided for ploughing.
  9. 9
    A shock or fright.
  10. 10
    A conducting area on a board or chip which can be used for connecting wires.
  11. 11
    On a compact disc or similar recording medium, an area of the medium which does not have pits.
  12. 12
    The non-airline portion of an itinerary. Hotel, tours, cruises, etc.
  13. 13
    The ground or floor.
  14. 14
    The lap of the strakes in a clinker-built boat; the lap of plates in an iron vessel; called also landing.
  15. 15
    In any surface prepared with indentations, perforations, or grooves, that part of the surface which is not so treated, such as the level part of a millstone between the furrows.
  16. 16
    In any surface prepared with indentations, perforations, or grooves, that part of the surface which is not so treated, such as the level part of a millstone between the furrows.
  17. 17
    A group of dwellings or tenements under one roof and having a common entry.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Germanic *landą Proto-West Germanic *land Old English land Middle English lond English land From Middle English lond, land, from Old English land, from Proto-West Germanic *land, from Proto-Germanic *landą (“land”), from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“land, heath”). Cognates Cognate with Scots laund (“land”), Yola lhoan, lloan, loan, londe, lone (“land”), North Frisian loun, luin, lun, Lön, lönj, löön (“land”), Saterland Frisian Lound (“land”), West Frisian lân (“land”), Limburgish Land, landj, Laïnt (“land”), Dutch land (“land, country”), Luxembourgish and German Land (“land, country, state”), Vilamovian łaond (“land”), Danish, Elfdalian, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish land (“land, country, shore, territory”). Non-Germanic cognates include Old Irish lann (“heath”), Welsh llan (“enclosure”), Breton lann (“heath”), Old Church Slavonic лѧдо (lędo), from Proto-Slavic *lędo (“heath, wasteland”), French lande (“heath”) and Albanian lëndinë (“heath, grassland”).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: alnd,ladn,landd,lannd,lland,lnad

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of land - 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.

alnd2ladn2landd1lannd1lland1lnad2
Edit distance from "land"

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 "land"?
"land" is spelled L-A-N-D. The IPA pronunciation is /lænd/.
What does "land" mean?
As a noun, "land" means: The part of Earth which is not covered by oceans or other bodies of water.
What words are commonly confused with "land"?
"land" is commonly confused with "LN", "law", "LED". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "land"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "land" is /lænd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "land"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Germanic *landą Proto-West Germanic *land Old English land Middle English lond English land From Middle English lond, land, from Old English land, from Proto-West Germanic *... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “land”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is L-A-N-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /lænd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “LN” - see the side-by-side comparison. land vs LN
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list