schist
/ʃɪst/
"schist" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“schist” is uncommon English (frequency #66,268 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,268
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of a variety of coarse-grained crystalline metamorphic rocks with a foliated structure that allows easy division into slabs or slates.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | schist |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃɪst/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #66,268 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “schist” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
schist is uncommon English at frequency #66,268 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ʃɪst/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of a variety of coarse-grained crystalline metamorphic rocks with a foliated structure that allows easy division into slabs or slates.".
schist doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French schiste, from Latin schistos lapis (“the stone that is easy to split”), from Ancient Greek σχιστός (skhistós, “splittable”), from σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”). The correct English form is schist, spelled S-C-H-I-S-T.
Definition
- 1Any of a variety of coarse-grained crystalline metamorphic rocks with a foliated structure that allows easy division into slabs or slates.
Etymology
From French schiste, from Latin schistos lapis (“the stone that is easy to split”), from Ancient Greek σχιστός (skhistós, “splittable”), from σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”).
This word in other languages
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 “schist”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-H-I-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃɪst/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.