Mohawk
/ˈmoʊhɔːk/
"mohawk" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Mohawk” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #24,243 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #24,243
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A member of an indigenous people of North America originally from the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario, the easternmost of the Iroquois Five Nations.
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 | Mohawk |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmoʊhɔːk/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #24,243 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Mohawk” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Mohawk is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmoʊhɔːk/. Corpus data places it at rank #24,243 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 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for Mohawk, with forms such as "mhoawk", "mmohawk", and "moahwk". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "Mohan", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Dutch Mohawk. An exonym, probably from Narragansett Mohowaúgsuck, Mauquàuog, meaning “they eat (animate things)”, “cannibals”. The phoneme /m/ is not present in the Mohawk language; the Mohawk autonym is Kanienʼkehá꞉kaʼ (Kanienkehaka, Kanyenkehaka). The correct English form is Mohawk, spelled M-O-H-A-W-K.
Definition
- 1A member of an indigenous people of North America originally from the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario, the easternmost of the Iroquois Five Nations.
- 2A hairstyle where both sides are shaved, with the hair along the crest of the head kept long, and usually styled so as to stand straight up.
- 3A member of a gang (the Mohocks) that terrorized London in the early 18th century.
Etymology
From Dutch Mohawk. An exonym, probably from Narragansett Mohowaúgsuck, Mauquàuog, meaning “they eat (animate things)”, “cannibals”. The phoneme /m/ is not present in the Mohawk language; the Mohawk autonym is Kanienʼkehá꞉kaʼ (Kanienkehaka, Kanyenkehaka).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mhoawk,mmohawk,moahwk,mohakw,mohawkk,mohawwk,mohhawk,mohwak,omhawk
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Mohawk - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "Mohawk"?
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Using “Mohawk”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-O-H-A-W-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmoʊhɔːk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Mohan” - see the side-by-side comparison. Mohawk vs Mohan
- 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.