scent
/sɛnt/
"scent" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scent” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,396 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,396
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A distinctive smell.
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 | scent |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɛnt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #9,396 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “scent” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for scent is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɛnt/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,396 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for scent, with forms such as "csent", "sccent", and "scennt". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "set", "sen", "seen", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sent (noun) and senten (verb), from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell, sense”), from Latin sentīre (“to feel, sense”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”), and thus related to Saterland Frisian Sin (“sense”)… The correct English form is scent, spelled S-C-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1A distinctive smell.
- 2A smell left by an animal that may be used for tracing.
- 3The sense of smell.
- 4A substance (usually liquid) created to provide a pleasant smell.
- 5Any trail or trace that can be followed to find something or someone, such as the paper left behind in a paperchase.
- 6Sense, perception.
Etymology
From Middle English sent (noun) and senten (verb), from Old French sentir (“to feel, perceive, smell, sense”), from Latin sentīre (“to feel, sense”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to feel”), and thus related to Saterland Frisian Sin (“sense”), West Frisian sin (“sense”), Dutch zin (“sense, meaning”), Low German Sinn (“sense”), Luxembourgish Sënn (“sense, perception”), German Sinn (“sense”). The -c- appeared in the 17th century, possibly by influence of ascent, descent, etc., or by influence of science.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: csent,sccent,scennt,scentt,scetn,scnet,secnt,sscent
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of scent - 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 “scent”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɛnt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “set” - see the side-by-side comparison. scent vs set
- 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.