phone
/fəʊ̯n/
"phone" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“phone” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #506 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #506
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A device for transmitting conversations and other sounds in real time across distances, now often a small portable unit also capable of running software etc.
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 | phone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fəʊ̯n/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #506 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “phone” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for phone is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fəʊ̯n/. Corpus data places it at rank #506 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for phone, with forms such as "hpone", "phhone", and "phnoe". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Poe", "pon", "pope", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁-der. Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle)lbor. French télé- Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-der. Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ)der. French -phone French téléphonebor. English telephone English phone Clipping of telephone; first attest… The correct English form is phone, spelled P-H-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1A device for transmitting conversations and other sounds in real time across distances, now often a small portable unit also capable of running software etc.
- 2A person's telephone number (as a means of contact); digits.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁-der. Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle)lbor. French télé- Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-der. Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ)der. French -phone French téléphonebor. English telephone English phone Clipping of telephone; first attested in 1884.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hpone,phhone,phnoe,phoen,phonne,pohne,pphone
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of phone - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “phone”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-H-O-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fəʊ̯n/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Poe” - see the side-by-side comparison. phone vs Poe
- 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.