list
/lɪst/
"list" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“list” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #531 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #531
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A strip of fabric, especially from the edge of a piece of cloth.
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
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for list is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /lɪst/. Corpus data places it at rank #531 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "list"?
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Using “list”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-I-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /lɪst/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Lt” - see the side-by-side comparison. list vs Lt
- 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.