saltwater
"saltwater" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“saltwater” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #27,629 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #27,629
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Alternative form of salt water.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | saltwater |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #27,629 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “saltwater” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for saltwater is 9 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #27,629 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Alternative form of salt water.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for saltwater, with forms such as "asltwater", "salltwater", and "saltawter". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English saltwater, salte water, equivalent to salt + water. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Soaltwoater (“saltwater”), West Frisian sâltwetter (“saltwater”), Dutch zoutwater (“saltwater”), German Low German Soltwater (“saltwater”), German Salzwas… The correct English form is saltwater, spelled S-A-L-T-W-A-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1Alternative form of salt water.
Etymology
From Middle English saltwater, salte water, equivalent to salt + water. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Soaltwoater (“saltwater”), West Frisian sâltwetter (“saltwater”), Dutch zoutwater (“saltwater”), German Low German Soltwater (“saltwater”), German Salzwasser (“saltwater”), Danish saltvand (“saltwater”), Swedish saltvatten (“saltwater”), Icelandic saltvatn (“saltwater”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: asltwater,salltwater,saltawter,salttwater,saltwaetr,saltwaterr,saltwatre,saltwatter,saltwtaer,saltwwater,salwtater,satlwater,slatwater,ssaltwater
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of saltwater - 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 “saltwater”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-L-T-W-A-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.