psalm
/sɑːm/
"psalm" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“psalm” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #13,789. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #13,789
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God.
Corpus desk
Index EN-psalm · psalm · English
psalm · rank #13,789 · 8 variants · 15 confusables
- FREQ-MID #13,789
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-MID 15 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH promoter
Nearest frequency peer: promoter (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “psalm”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- processors
processors
86,215 corpus weight
- programmer
programmer
86,214 corpus weight
- promoter
promoter
86,213 corpus weight
- psalm
psalm
86,212 corpus weight
- psychiatry
psychiatry
86,211 corpus weight
- pubs
pubs
86,209 corpus weight
What this shows “psalm” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | psalm |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɑːm/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #13,789 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “psalm”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around psalm (IPA /sɑːm/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #13,789 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for psalm, with forms such as "paslm", "ppsalm", and "psallm". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "PSL", "Psalms", "PAL", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English salm or psalme, from Old English psealm, later reinforced from Old French psalme (modern French psaume), both from Latin psalmus, from Ancient Greek ψαλμός (psalmós, “the sound emanating from twitching or twanging perhaps with the hands … The correct English form is psalm, spelled P-S-A-L-M.
Definition
- 1A sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God.
- 2One of the hymns by David and others, collected into one book of the Old Testament, or a modern metrical version of such a hymn for public worship.
Etymology
From Middle English salm or psalme, from Old English psealm, later reinforced from Old French psalme (modern French psaume), both from Latin psalmus, from Ancient Greek ψαλμός (psalmós, “the sound emanating from twitching or twanging perhaps with the hands or fingers, mostly of musical strings”) (from ψάλλω (psállō, “to make a sound by striking, touching, plucking, rubbing, twanging, or vibrating”)), but later in New Testament times the meaning of ψαλμός (psalmós) evolved from its Classical meaning of "a tune played to the harp" to a more general tune that could be played with any instrument; even a song sung with or without musical accompaniment. By the Byzantine Period, it lost all of its instrumental nuances.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- paslm
- ppsalm
- psallm
- psalmm
- psaml
- pslam
- pssalm
- spalm
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of psalm - 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 "psalm"?
What does "psalm" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "psalm"?
How do you pronounce "psalm"?
What is the origin of the word "psalm"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "psalm", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).