list
/lɪst/
"list" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“list” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #531. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #531
- 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 strip of fabric, especially from the edge of a piece of cloth.
Corpus desk
Index EN-list · list · English
list · rank #531 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #531
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH kids
Nearest frequency peer: kids (-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 “list”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- former
former
99,473 corpus weight
- front
front
99,472 corpus weight
- kids
kids
99,471 corpus weight
- list
list
99,470 corpus weight
- ready
ready
99,469 corpus weight
- sometimes
sometimes
99,468 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “list” 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 | list |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /lɪst/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #531 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “list” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around list (IPA /lɪst/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #531 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 12 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for list, with forms such as "ilst", "lisst", and "listt". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Lt", "Ls", "lot", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lī̆st, lī̆ste (“band, stripe; hem, selvage; border, edge, rim; list, specification; barriers enclosing area for jousting, etc.”), from Old English līste (“hem, edge, strip”), or Old French liste, listre (“border; band; strip of paper; li… The correct English form is list, spelled L-I-S-T.
Definition
- 1A strip of fabric, especially from the edge of a piece of cloth.
- 2Material used for cloth selvage.
- 3A register or roll of paper consisting of a compilation or enumeration of a set of possible items; the compilation or enumeration itself.
- 4The barriers or palisades used to fence off a space for jousting or tilting tournaments.
- 5The scene of a military contest; the ground or field of combat; an enclosed space that serves as a battlefield; the site of a pitched battle.
- 6A codified representation of a list used to store data or in processing; especially, in the Lisp programming language, a data structure consisting of a sequence of zero or more items.
- 7A little square moulding; a fillet or listel.
- 8A narrow strip of wood, especially sapwood, cut from the edge of a board or plank.
- 9A piece of woollen cloth with which the yarns are grasped by a worker.
- 10The first thin coating of tin; a wire-like rim of tin left on an edge of the plate after it is coated.
- 11A stripe.
- 12A boundary or limit; a border.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how list appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1. Gent[leman]. Well: there went but a paire of ſheeres betweene vs. / Luc[io]. I grant: as there may betweene the Liſts, and the Veluet. Thou art the Liſt. / 1. Gent. And thou the Veluet. Thou art good Veluet; thou'rt a three pild-piece I warrant thee: I had as liefe be a Lyſt of an Engliſh Kerſey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French Veluet. Do…
“Listen! I see it all — down, down even to the stays! Such stays! Six-eight a pair, Polly, with red flannel — or list is it? — that they put into the tops of those fearful things. I can draw you a picture of them.”
Etymology
From Middle English lī̆st, lī̆ste (“band, stripe; hem, selvage; border, edge, rim; list, specification; barriers enclosing area for jousting, etc.”), from Old English līste (“hem, edge, strip”), or Old French liste, listre (“border; band; strip of paper; list”), or Medieval Latin lista, all from Proto-West Germanic *līstā, from Proto-Germanic *līstǭ (“band, strip; hem, selvage; border, edge”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“to trace, track”). Cognates * Saterland Frisian Lieste (“margin, strip, list”) * Dutch lijst (“picture frame, list”) * German Low German Liest (“edging, border”) * German Leiste (“strip, rail, ledge; (heraldry) bar”) * Swedish lista (“list”) * Icelandic lista listi (“list”) * Italian lista (“list; strip”) * Portuguese lista (“list”) * Spanish lista (“list, roll; stripe”) * Galician lista (“band, strip; list”) * Finnish lista (“(informal) list; batten”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ilst
- lisst
- listt
- lits
- llist
- lsit
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of list - 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.
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
How do you spell "list"?
What does "list" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "list", 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.