pulley
/ˈpʊli/
"pulley" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pulley” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #32,139. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #32,139
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One of the simple machines; a sheave, a wheel with a grooved rim, in which a pulled rope or chain lifts an object (more useful when two or more pulleys are used together, as in a block and tackle a...
Corpus desk
Index EN-pulley · pulley · English
pulley · rank #32,139 · 7 variants · 15 confusables
- FREQ-MID #32,139
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 15 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH propellant
Nearest frequency peer: propellant (-2 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 “pulley”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- procuring
procuring
67,867 corpus weight
- prodigal
prodigal
67,866 corpus weight
- prodigious
prodigious
67,865 corpus weight
- propellant
propellant
67,864 corpus weight
- pulley
pulley
67,862 corpus weight
- Raju
Raju
67,858 corpus weight
What this shows “pulley” 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 | pulley |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpʊli/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #32,139 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “pulley”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around pulley (IPA /ˈpʊli/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #32,139 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for pulley, with forms such as "pluley", "ppulley", and "pulely". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "pulse", "pulls", "pulses", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English puly, poley, from Old French poulie, polie (“a pulley, windlass”), from Medieval Latin polidia, plural mistaken for the feminine of neuter polidium, from Ancient Greek πολίδιον (polídion, “little pivot”), diminutive of πόλος (pólos, “piv… The correct English form is pulley, spelled P-U-L-L-E-Y.
Definition
- 1One of the simple machines; a sheave, a wheel with a grooved rim, in which a pulled rope or chain lifts an object (more useful when two or more pulleys are used together, as in a block and tackle arrangement, such that a small force moving through a greater distance can exert a larger force through a smaller distance).
- 2Annular ligament of the finger.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pulley appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
These pulleys […] placed collaterally.
Nine hundred of the ſtrongeſt Men were employed to draw up theſe Cords by many Pulleys faſtned on the Poles, and thus, in leſs than three Hours, I was raiſed and flung into the Engine, and there tyed faſt.
Etymology
From Middle English puly, poley, from Old French poulie, polie (“a pulley, windlass”), from Medieval Latin polidia, plural mistaken for the feminine of neuter polidium, from Ancient Greek πολίδιον (polídion, “little pivot”), diminutive of πόλος (pólos, “pivot, hinge, axis”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to turn”). Associated with pull (verb) by folk etymology.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- pluley
- ppulley
- pulely
- puley
- pulleyy
- pullye
- uplley
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pulley - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pulley", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).