mole
/məʊl/
"mole" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mole” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #11,745. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #11,745
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - A naevus, a pigmented, slightly raised, and sometimes hairy spot on the skin.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mole · mole · English
mole · rank #11,745 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #11,745
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH mist
Nearest frequency peer: mist (-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 “mole”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- merits
merits
88,258 corpus weight
- mist
mist
88,257 corpus weight
- mole
mole
88,256 corpus weight
- molecule
molecule
88,255 corpus weight
- monarchy
monarchy
88,254 corpus weight
- Mormon
Mormon
88,253 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “mole” 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 | mole |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /məʊl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #11,745 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mole” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around mole (IPA /məʊl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #11,745 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A naevus, a pigmented, slightly raised, and sometimes hairy spot on the skin.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for mole, with forms such as "mloe", "mmole", and "moel". 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, "mom", "mon", "MoS", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mole, mool, from Old English māl (“a mole, spot, mark, blemish”), from Proto-West Germanic *mail, from Proto-Germanic *mailą (“spot, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *mel-, *melw- (“dark, dirty”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey-, *my- … The correct English form is mole, spelled M-O-L-E.
Definition
- 1A naevus, a pigmented, slightly raised, and sometimes hairy spot on the skin.
Etymology
From Middle English mole, mool, from Old English māl (“a mole, spot, mark, blemish”), from Proto-West Germanic *mail, from Proto-Germanic *mailą (“spot, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *mel-, *melw- (“dark, dirty”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey-, *my- (“to soil, sully”). Cognate with Scots mail (“spot, stain”), Saterland Frisian Moal (“scar”), German dialectal Meil (“spot, stain, blemish”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌻 (mail, “spot, blemish”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- mloe
- mmole
- moel
- molle
- omle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mole - 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 "mole"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mole", 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 (5 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.