school
/skuːl/
"school" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“school” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #188 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #188
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An institution dedicated to teaching and learning; an educational institution.
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 | school |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /skuːl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #188 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “school” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for school is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /skuːl/. Corpus data places it at rank #188 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1An institution dedicated to teaching and learning; an educational institution.
- 2An educational institution providing primary and secondary education, prior to tertiary education (college or university).
- 3At Eton College, a period or session of teaching.
- 4Within a larger educational institution, an organizational unit, such as a department or institute, which is dedicated to a specific subject area.
- 5An art movement, a community of artists.
- 6The followers of a particular doctrine; a particular way of thinking or particular doctrine; a school of thought.
- 7The time during which classes are attended or in session in an educational institution.
- 8The room or hall in English universities where the examinations for degrees and honours are held.
- 9The canons, precepts, or body of opinion or practice, sanctioned by the authority of a particular class or age.
- 10An establishment offering specialized instruction, as for driving, cooking, typing, coding, etc.
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
This word in other languages
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.
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 “school”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-H-O-O-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /skuːl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “shoo” - see the side-by-side comparison. school vs shoo
- 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.