pillow
/ˈpɪl.əʊ/
"pillow" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pillow” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,592 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,592
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A soft cushion used to support the head in bed.
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 | pillow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɪl.əʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #7,592 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pillow” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pillow is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɪl.əʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,592 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 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for pillow, with forms such as "ipllow", "pilloww", and "pillwo". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "plow", "pilot", "pills", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pilwe, from Old English pyle, pylu (“pillow”), from Proto-West Germanic *pulwī (“pillow”), from Latin pulvīnus (“cushion”), derived from pulvis (“dust, powder”) + -īnus (“-ine”), for the filler of a pillow. Doublet of pulvinus. Cognate w… The correct English form is pillow, spelled P-I-L-L-O-W.
Definition
- 1A soft cushion used to support the head in bed.
- 2Any similar head support used for sleep, such as a neck pillow or a hard porcelain pillow. Example: She slept with her head on the pillow.
- 3A pillow lava.
- 4A piece of metal or wood, forming a support to equalize pressure; a brass; a pillow block.
- 5A block under the inner end of a bowsprit.
- 6The socket of a pivot.
- 7A kind of plain, coarse fustian.
Etymology
From Middle English pilwe, from Old English pyle, pylu (“pillow”), from Proto-West Germanic *pulwī (“pillow”), from Latin pulvīnus (“cushion”), derived from pulvis (“dust, powder”) + -īnus (“-ine”), for the filler of a pillow. Doublet of pulvinus. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Peel (“pillow”), Alemannic German Pfulme (“pillow”), Dutch peluw (“a long, narrow pillow”), German Pfühl (“a big and soft pillow”), German Low German Pöhl (“pad, pillow, cushion”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ipllow,pilloww,pillwo,pilolw,pilow,plilow,ppillow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pillow - 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
How do you spell "pillow"?
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Using “pillow”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-I-L-L-O-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɪl.əʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “plow” - see the side-by-side comparison. pillow vs plow
- 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.