sambal
"sambal" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sambal” is uncommon English (frequency #79,936 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,936
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A hot relish made from chili peppers and other ingredients.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sambal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #79,936 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sambal” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sambal is uncommon English at frequency #79,936 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A hot relish made from chili peppers and other ingredients.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for sambal, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed, either directly or via Afrikaans sambal, from Malay sambal, from Javanese ꦱꦩ꧀ꦧꦼꦭ꧀ (sambel). The correct English form is sambal, spelled S-A-M-B-A-L.
Definition
- 1A hot relish made from chili peppers and other ingredients.
Etymology
Borrowed, either directly or via Afrikaans sambal, from Malay sambal, from Javanese ꦱꦩ꧀ꦧꦼꦭ꧀ (sambel).
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 “sambal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-A-M-B-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.