phishing
/ˈfɪʃɪŋ/
"phishing" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“phishing” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #30,917 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #30,917
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The malicious act of keeping a false website or sending a false e-mail with the intent of masquerading as a trustworthy entity in order to acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, password...
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 | phishing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɪʃɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #30,917 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “phishing” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for phishing is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɪʃɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #30,917 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for phishing, with forms such as "hpishing", "phhishing", and "phihsing". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "pushing", "pissing", "punishing", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Respelling of fishing (“trying to find”). In Usenet newsgroups, cracker and pirate groups used variant spellings of phish and warez (i.e. wares) to evade scans and filters by mainstream servers policing the ARPAnet/Internet. Compare other respelling slang l… The correct English form is phishing, spelled P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The malicious act of keeping a false website or sending a false e-mail with the intent of masquerading as a trustworthy entity in order to acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details.
- 2The act of circumventing security with an alias.
Etymology
Respelling of fishing (“trying to find”). In Usenet newsgroups, cracker and pirate groups used variant spellings of phish and warez (i.e. wares) to evade scans and filters by mainstream servers policing the ARPAnet/Internet. Compare other respelling slang like phat and phreak.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hpishing,phhishing,phihsing,phishhing,phishign,phishingg,phishinng,phishnig,phisihng,phisshing,phsihing,pihshing,pphishing
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of phishing - 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 “phishing”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɪʃɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “pushing” - see the side-by-side comparison. phishing vs pushing
- 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.