lesson
/ˈlɛs.ən/
"lesson" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lesson” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,177 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #3,177
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To instruct to teach.
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 | lesson |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈlɛs.ən/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #3,177 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lesson” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lesson is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlɛs.ən/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,177 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To instruct to teach.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for lesson, with forms such as "elsson", "leson", and "lesosn". 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 18 confusable-pair relationships, "Lisbon", "Liston", "Leyton", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lessoun, from Old French leçon, from Latin lēctiō, lēctiōnem (“a reading”), from legō (“to read; to gather”). Doublet of lection. The correct English form is lesson, spelled L-E-S-S-O-N.
Definition
- 1To instruct to teach.
Etymology
From Middle English lessoun, from Old French leçon, from Latin lēctiō, lēctiōnem (“a reading”), from legō (“to read; to gather”). Doublet of lection.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: elsson,leson,lesosn,lessno,lessonn,llesson,lseson
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lesson - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “lesson”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-E-S-S-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlɛs.ən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Lisbon” - see the side-by-side comparison. lesson vs Lisbon
- 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.