lethal
/ˈliː.θəl/
"lethal" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lethal” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,813 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #8,813
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.
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 | lethal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈliː.θəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #8,813 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lethal” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lethal is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈliː.θəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,813 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for lethal, with forms such as "elthal", "lehtal", and "letahl". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "legal", "Latham", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin lētālis (“deadly, mortal, fatal”), improperly written lēthālis, from lētum (“death”), improperly written as lēthum, from a supposed connection with Ancient Greek λήθη (lḗthē, “oblivion, forgetfulness”). The correct English form is lethal, spelled L-E-T-H-A-L.
Definition
- 1Of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin lētālis (“deadly, mortal, fatal”), improperly written lēthālis, from lētum (“death”), improperly written as lēthum, from a supposed connection with Ancient Greek λήθη (lḗthē, “oblivion, forgetfulness”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: elthal,lehtal,letahl,lethall,lethhal,lethla,letthal,llethal,ltehal
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lethal - 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 “lethal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-E-T-H-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈliː.θəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “legal” - see the side-by-side comparison. lethal vs legal
- 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.