pilots
/ˈpaɪləts/
"pilots" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pilots” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,899 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,899
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - plural of pilot
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 | pilots |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpaɪləts/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #5,899 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pilots” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pilots is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpaɪləts/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,899 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "plural of pilot".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for pilots, with forms such as "iplots", "pillots", and "pilost". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "plot", "pots", "pits", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is pilots, spelled P-I-L-O-T-S.
Definition
- 1plural of pilot
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iplots,pillots,pilost,pilotss,pilotts,piltos,piolts,pliots,ppilots
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pilots - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “pilots”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-I-L-O-T-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpaɪləts/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “plot” - see the side-by-side comparison. pilots vs plot
- 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.