millstone
/ˈmɪlstəʊn/
"millstone" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“millstone” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #45,518 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #45,518
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A large round stone used for grinding grain.
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 | millstone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɪlstəʊn/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #45,518 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “millstone” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for millstone is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɪlstəʊn/. Corpus data places it at rank #45,518 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for millstone, with forms such as "imllstone", "millsotne", and "millsstone". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "milestone", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mylneston, milneston, from Old English mylenstān (“millstone”), from Proto-West Germanic *mulīnu + *stain; equivalent to mill + stone; cognate with Danish møllesten, Middle Dutch molensteen (modern Dutch molensteen), West Frisian molesti… The correct English form is millstone, spelled M-I-L-L-S-T-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1A large round stone used for grinding grain.
- 2A coarse-grained sandstone used for making such stones; millstone grit.
- 3Ellipsis of millstone around one's neck, a heavy responsibility that is difficult to bear (referring to Matthew 18:6 in the Bible).
Etymology
From Middle English mylneston, milneston, from Old English mylenstān (“millstone”), from Proto-West Germanic *mulīnu + *stain; equivalent to mill + stone; cognate with Danish møllesten, Middle Dutch molensteen (modern Dutch molensteen), West Frisian molestien, Norwegian Bokmål møllestein, Old Saxon mulinstēn (Middle Low German mȫlenstēn), Old High German mulinstein, mülstein (Middle High German mülstein, modern German Mühlstein).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: imllstone,millsotne,millsstone,millstnoe,millstoen,millstonne,millsttone,milltsone,milsltone,milstone,mlilstone,mmillstone
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of millstone - 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
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Using “millstone”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-L-L-S-T-O-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɪlstəʊn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “milestone” - see the side-by-side comparison. millstone vs milestone
- 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.