Muslim
/ˈmʊz.lɪm/
"muslim" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Muslim” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,168 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,168
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person who is a follower and believer of Islam.
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 | Muslim |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmʊz.lɪm/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,168 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Muslim” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Muslim is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmʊz.lɪm/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,168 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A person who is a follower and believer of Islam.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for Muslim, with forms such as "mmuslim", "msulim", and "mulsim". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "muslin", "music", "museum", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed around 1615 from Arabic مُسْلِم (muslim, “one who submits”), the active participle of أَسْلَمَ (ʔaslama, “he submitted”), verb form IV from the triliteral root س ل م (s l m), "to be whole, intact". The verbal noun إسْلام (ʔislām) means literally "s… The correct English form is Muslim, spelled M-U-S-L-I-M.
Definition
- 1A person who is a follower and believer of Islam.
Etymology
Borrowed around 1615 from Arabic مُسْلِم (muslim, “one who submits”), the active participle of أَسْلَمَ (ʔaslama, “he submitted”), verb form IV from the triliteral root س ل م (s l m), "to be whole, intact". The verbal noun إسْلام (ʔislām) means literally "submission". In a religious sense, الْإِسْلَام (al-ʔislām) translates to "faith, piety", and مُسْلِم (muslim) to "one who has (religious) faith or piety".
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmuslim,msulim,mulsim,musilm,muslimm,musllim,muslmi,musslim,umslim
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Muslim - 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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Using “Muslim”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-U-S-L-I-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmʊz.lɪm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “muslin” - see the side-by-side comparison. Muslim vs muslin
- 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.