school

/skuːl/

//skuːl// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"school" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“school” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #188. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#188
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
11
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An institution dedicated to teaching and learning; an educational institution.

Corpus desk

Index EN-school · school · English

school · rank #188 · 9 variants · 11 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #188
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 11 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH place

Nearest frequency peer: place (-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 “school”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “school” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

school vs shoo
67% similar
school vs shoot
67% similar
school vs shook
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for school
PropertyValue
Headwordschool
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/skuːl/
Letters6
Frequency rank#188
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs11
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “school”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).schoollands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “place” (#187), “again” (#189), “house” (#186). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “school” is #188. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around school (IPA /skuːl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #188 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for school, with forms such as "cshool", "scchool", and "schhool". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "shoo", "shoot", "shook", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English scole, from Old English scōl (“place of education”), from Proto-West Germanic *skōlu, from Late Latin schola, scola (“learned discussion or dissertation, lecture, school”), from Ancient Greek σχολή (skholḗ, “spare time, leisure”), from P… The correct English form is school, spelled S-C-H-O-O-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    An institution dedicated to teaching and learning; an educational institution.
  2. 2
    An educational institution providing primary and secondary education, prior to tertiary education (college or university).
  3. 3
    At Eton College, a period or session of teaching.
  4. 4
    Within a larger educational institution, an organizational unit, such as a department or institute, which is dedicated to a specific subject area.
  5. 5
    An art movement, a community of artists.
  6. 6
    The followers of a particular doctrine; a particular way of thinking or particular doctrine; a school of thought.
  7. 7
    The time during which classes are attended or in session in an educational institution.
  8. 8
    The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honours are held.
  9. 9
    The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age.
  10. 10
    An establishment offering specialized instruction, as for driving, cooking, typing, coding, etc.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how school appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Our children attend a public school in our neighborhood.
  2. Harvard University is a famous American postsecondary school.

Etymology

From Middle English scole, from Old English scōl (“place of education”), from Proto-West Germanic *skōlu, from Late Latin schola, scola (“learned discussion or dissertation, lecture, school”), from Ancient Greek σχολή (skholḗ, “spare time, leisure”), from Proto-Indo-European *seǵʰ- (“to hold, have, possess”). Doublet of schola and shul. Compare Old Frisian skūle, schūle (“school”) (West Frisian skoalle, Saterland Frisian Skoule), Dutch school (“school”), German Low German School (“school”), Old High German scuola (“school”), German Schule (“school”), Old Norse skóli (“school”). Influenced in some senses by Middle English schole (“group of persons, host, company”), from Middle Dutch scole (“multitude, troop, band”). See school (“group”). Related also to Old High German sigi (German Sieg, “victory”), Old English siġe, sigor (“victory”).

Synonyms

school

This word in other languages

escuela(Español)école(Français)Schule(Deutsch)escola(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • cshool
  • scchool
  • schhool
  • schol
  • scholo
  • schooll
  • scohol
  • shcool
  • sschool

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of school - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

cshool2scchool1schhool1schol1scholo2schooll1scohol2shcool2
Edit distance from "school"

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

How do you spell "school"?
"school" is spelled S-C-H-O-O-L. The IPA pronunciation is /skuːl/.
What does "school" mean?
As a noun, "school" means: An institution dedicated to teaching and learning; an educational institution.
What words are commonly confused with "school"?
"school" is commonly confused with "shoo", "shoot", "shook". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "school"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "school" is /skuːl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "school"?
From Middle English scole, from Old English scōl (“place of education”), from Proto-West Germanic *skōlu, from Late Latin schola, scola (“learned discussion or dissertation, lecture, school”), from Ancient Greek σχολή (skholḗ, “spare time, leisure... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "school", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

didn't#195during#181things#179little#173

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

family9 variantsalways9 variantssecond9 variantssomeone9 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list