link
/lɪŋk/
"link" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“link” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,108. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,108
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - A connection between places, people, events, things, or ideas.
Corpus desk
Index EN-link · link · English
link · rank #1,108 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,108
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH kid
Nearest frequency peer: kid (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “link”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- feet
feet
98,896 corpus weight
- Jesus
Jesus
98,895 corpus weight
- kid
kid
98,894 corpus weight
- link
link
98,893 corpus weight
- positive
positive
98,892 corpus weight
- sale
sale
98,891 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “link” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | link |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /lɪŋk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,108 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “link” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around link (IPA /lɪŋk/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,108 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 15 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for link, with forms such as "ilnk", "likn", and "linkk". 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, "LN", "lit", "lip", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English linke, lenke, from a merger of Old English hlenċe, hlenċa (“ring; chainlink”) and Old Norse *hlenkr, hlekkr (“ring; chain”); both from Proto-Germanic *hlankiz (“ring; bond; fettle; fetter”), from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“bendsome, flexi… The correct English form is link, spelled L-I-N-K.
Definition
- 1A connection between places, people, events, things, or ideas.
- 2One element of a chain or other connected series.
- 3Abbreviation of hyperlink.
- 4The connection between buses or systems.
- 5A space comprising one or more disjoint knots.
- 6A thin wild bank of land splitting two cultivated patches and often linking two hills.
- 7An individual person or element in a system
- 8Anything doubled and closed like a link of a chain.
- 9A sausage that is not a patty.
- 10Any one of the several elementary pieces of a mechanism, such as the fixed frame, or a rod, wheel, mass of confined liquid, etc., by which relative motion of other parts is produced and constrained.
- 11Any intermediate rod or piece for transmitting force or motion, especially a short connecting rod with a bearing at each end; specifically (in steam engines) the slotted bar, or connecting piece, to the opposite ends of which the eccentric rods are jointed, and by means of which the movement of the valve is varied, in a link motion.
- 12The length of one joint of Gunter's chain, being the hundredth part of it, or 7.92 inches, the chain being 66 feet in length.
- 13A bond of affinity, or a unit of valence between atoms; applied to a unit of chemical force or attraction.
- 14The windings of a river; the land along a winding stream.
- 15An introductory cue.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how link appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The mayor’s assistant serves as the link to the media.
The link of brotherhood, by which / One common Maker bound me to the kind.
Etymology
From Middle English linke, lenke, from a merger of Old English hlenċe, hlenċa (“ring; chainlink”) and Old Norse *hlenkr, hlekkr (“ring; chain”); both from Proto-Germanic *hlankiz (“ring; bond; fettle; fetter”), from Proto-Germanic *hlankaz (“bendsome, flexible”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleng-, *klenk- (“to bend; twist; wind”). Used in English since the 14th century. Related to lank. Cognates Cognate with Low German Lenk (“link”), Danish lænke (“chain; link”), Elfdalian lekk (“link”), Icelandic hlekkur (“link”), Norwegian Bokmål lenke (“chain; link”), Norwegian Nynorsk lenke, lenkje (“chain; link”), Swedish länk (“chain; link”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ilnk
- likn
- linkk
- linnk
- llink
- lnik
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of link - 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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "link", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
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.