nail
/neɪl/
"nail" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nail” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,064 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,064
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.
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 | nail |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /neɪl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,064 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nail” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nail is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /neɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,064 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for nail, with forms such as "naill", "nali", and "nial". 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, "ni", "NL", "NFL", 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 nail, nayl, Old English næġl, from Proto-West Germanic *nagl, from Proto-Germanic *naglaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nogʰ- (“nail”). Cognates Compare North Frisian Nail (“nail”), Saterland Frisian Nail (“nail”), West Frisian neil, Low … The correct English form is nail, spelled N-A-I-L.
Definition
- 1The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals.
- 2The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.
- 3The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds.
- 4The claw of a bird or other animal.
- 5A spike-shaped metal fastener used for joining wood or similar materials. The nail is generally driven through two or more layers of material by means of impacts from a hammer or other device. It is then held in place by friction.
- 6A round pedestal on which merchants once carried out their business, such as the four nails outside The Exchange, Bristol.
- 7An archaic English unit of length equivalent to ¹⁄₂₀ of an ell or ¹⁄₁₆ of a yard (2+¹⁄₄ inches or 5.715 cm).
Etymology
From Middle English nail, nayl, Old English næġl, from Proto-West Germanic *nagl, from Proto-Germanic *naglaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nogʰ- (“nail”). Cognates Compare North Frisian Nail (“nail”), Saterland Frisian Nail (“nail”), West Frisian neil, Low German Nagel, Dutch nagel, German Nagel, Danish negl, Swedish nagel, Finnish naula (“nail”), Estonian nael (“nail”), (compare Irish ionga, Latin unguis, Albanian nyell (“ankle, hard part of a limb”), Lithuanian nagas, Russian нога́ (nogá, “foot, leg”), но́готь (nógotʹ, “nail”), Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux), Persian ناخن (nâxon), Sanskrit नख (nakhá).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: naill,nali,nial,nnail
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of nail - 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 “nail”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-A-I-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /neɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ni” - see the side-by-side comparison. nail vs ni
- 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.