monkey
/ˈmʌŋki/
"monkey" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“monkey” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #6,380. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #6,380
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails, and cheek pouches.
Corpus desk
Index EN-monkey · monkey · English
monkey · rank #6,380 · 9 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,380
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH momentum
Nearest frequency peer: momentum (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “monkey”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- measuring
measuring
93,624 corpus weight
- miserable
miserable
93,623 corpus weight
- momentum
momentum
93,622 corpus weight
- monkey
monkey
93,621 corpus weight
- Montreal
Montreal
93,620 corpus weight
- motorcycle
motorcycle
93,619 corpus weight
What this shows “monkey” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | monkey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmʌŋki/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #6,380 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “monkey”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around monkey (IPA /ˈmʌŋki/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,380 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 20 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for monkey, with forms such as "mmonkey", "mnokey", and "mokney". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "monks", "monte", "Monty", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Uncertain: * May be derived from monk + -ey (diminutive suffix), * or borrowed from Middle Low German Moneke, the name of the son of Martin the Ape in Reynard the Fox (which may represent an unattested colloquial Middle Low German *moneke, *moneken), itself… The correct English form is monkey, spelled M-O-N-K-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A member of the clade Simiiformes other than those in the clade Hominoidea containing apes, generally (but not universally) distinguished by small size, tails, and cheek pouches.
- 2Any simian, including humans.
- 3Any simian primate other than hominids; any monkey or ape.
- 4A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
- 5A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
- 6A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
- 7A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
- 8A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
- 9A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
- 10A human considered to resemble monkeys in some way, including:
- 11A penis.
- 12A small trading vessel of the sixteenth century.
- 13The vessel in which a mess receives its full allowance of grog.
- 14The weight of a pile driver or drop hammer.
- 15A fluid consisting of hydrochloric acid and zinc, used in the process of soldering.
- 16Synonym of five hundred, especially (British) 500 pounds sterling or (US, dated) 500 dollars.
- 17Synonym of face card.
- 18A person's temper, said to be "up" when they are angry.
- 19A drug habit; an addiction; a compulsion.
- 20A dance popularized by Major Lance in 1963, now usually only its upper-body dance move involving exaggerated drumming motions.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how monkey appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He had been visiting an area zoo when a monkey swung from its tree perch, swiped his glasses and hurled them into a hippo hole.
They thought of, I don’t know, monkeys and caipirinhas and samba.”
Etymology
Uncertain: * May be derived from monk + -ey (diminutive suffix), * or borrowed from Middle Low German Moneke, the name of the son of Martin the Ape in Reynard the Fox (which may represent an unattested colloquial Middle Low German *moneke, *moneken), itself of uncertain origin: ** Possibly derived from a Romance term represented by Late Middle French monne (whence Modern French mone (“monkey”)) or earlier Old French monnekin (“monkey”), originally Monnekin, the name of a monkey in Li Dis d'Entendement. Compare also Old French and Middle French monin (“monkey”). *** The French terms may have been borrowed from Italian monna (“monkey”), from Old Spanish mona (“female monkey”), itself a shortening of mamona, variant of maimón, from Arabic مَيْمُون (maymūn, “baboon”)). *** However, Old French monnekin may alternatively be unrelated to the other terms, instead being a borrowing of Early Middle Dutch mannekin (a diminutive of man, literally “little human”), and if so monkey is a doublet of mannequin; see modern Dutch manneken.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- mmonkey
- mnokey
- mokney
- moneky
- monkeyy
- monkkey
- monkye
- monnkey
- omnkey
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of monkey - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "monkey", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).