lintel
/ˈlɪn.təl/
"lintel" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lintel” is an uncommon English word, ranked #65,268 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #65,268
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A horizontal structural beam spanning an opening, such as between the uprights of a door or a window, and which supports the wall above.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lintel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlɪn.təl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #65,268 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lintel” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lintel is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlɪn.təl/. Corpus data places it at rank #65,268 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A horizontal structural beam spanning an opening, such as between the uprights of a door or a window, and which supports the wall above.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for lintel, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lyntel, from Old French lintel, from Vulgar Latin *līntellus, for *līmitellus, diminutive noun from līmes. Equivalent to limit + -el. The correct English form is lintel, spelled L-I-N-T-E-L.
Definition
- 1A horizontal structural beam spanning an opening, such as between the uprights of a door or a window, and which supports the wall above.
Etymology
From Middle English lyntel, from Old French lintel, from Vulgar Latin *līntellus, for *līmitellus, diminutive noun from līmes. Equivalent to limit + -el.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
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.
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Using “lintel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-I-N-T-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlɪn.təl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.