sandman
/ˈsænd.mæn/
"sandman" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sandman” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #29,823. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #29,823
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A figure that brings sleep and dreams by sprinkling magical sand into people's eyes.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sandman · sandman · English
sandman · rank #29,823 · 11 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-MID #29,823
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Sagan
Nearest frequency peer: Sagan (-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 “sandman”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- roving
roving
70,181 corpus weight
- SaaS
SaaS
70,180 corpus weight
- Sagan
Sagan
70,179 corpus weight
- sandman
sandman
70,178 corpus weight
- sass
sass
70,176 corpus weight
- savor
savor
70,175 corpus weight
What this shows “sandman” 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 | sandman |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsænd.mæn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #29,823 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “sandman”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around sandman (IPA /ˈsænd.mæn/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #29,823 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for sandman, with forms such as "asndman", "sadnman", and "sandamn". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "Sandra", "Sandown", "Salman", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From sand + -man. The mythological sense may be from German Sandmann, Sandmännchen, as it is apparently first attested in English in the context of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella The Sandman (1816). The German is attested in the relevant sense since at least the… The correct English form is sandman, spelled S-A-N-D-M-A-N.
Definition
- 1A figure that brings sleep and dreams by sprinkling magical sand into people's eyes.
- 2Used as a symbol of the passage of time toward death.
- 3A seller of sand.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sandman appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
This then was the Sandman; but what was his occupation, and what was his purpose ? The nursery-maid being applied to, gave a nursery-maid's explanation, that the Sandman was a bad man, who flung sand in the eyes of little children who did not go to bed.
1811, Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Consisting of One Thousand and One Stories, Told by the Sultaness of the Indies, Henry Mozley (publ.), page 114. While I was out, a sandman, who sells scouring sand, which women use to clean the baths with, passed through our street, and called, Any sand ho !
Etymology
From sand + -man. The mythological sense may be from German Sandmann, Sandmännchen, as it is apparently first attested in English in the context of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s novella The Sandman (1816). The German is attested in the relevant sense since at least the mid-18th century.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- asndman
- sadnman
- sandamn
- sanddman
- sandmann
- sandmman
- sandmna
- sanmdan
- sanndman
- snadman
- ssandman
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sandman - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sandman", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).