nelson
"nelson" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nelson” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,781 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #4,781
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A score of 111, sometimes considered to be unlucky.
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 | nelson |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #4,781 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nelson” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for nelson is 6 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #4,781 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 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 nelson, with forms such as "enlson", "nellson", and "nelosn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "neon", "nylon", "newton", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Cricket sense: origin disputed; supposedly from the belief that Lord Nelson had one eye, one arm and one leg. Wrestling sense: Back-formation from full nelson. The correct English form is nelson, spelled N-E-L-S-O-N.
Definition
- 1A score of 111, sometimes considered to be unlucky.
- 2A wrestling hold in which a wrestler's arm is locked behind their back.
Etymology
Cricket sense: origin disputed; supposedly from the belief that Lord Nelson had one eye, one arm and one leg. Wrestling sense: Back-formation from full nelson.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: enlson,nellson,nelosn,nelsno,nelsonn,nelsson,neslon,nleson,nnelson
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of nelson - 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 “nelson”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-E-L-S-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “neon” - see the side-by-side comparison. nelson vs neon
- 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.