screw

/skɹuː/

//skɹuː// noun

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

"screw" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“screw” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,710. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,710
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A device that has a helical function.

Corpus desk

Index EN-screw · screw · English

screw · rank #4,710 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,710
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH rude

Nearest frequency peer: rude (-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 “screw”

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

corpus weight

What this shows “screw” 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).

screw vs sew
60% similar
screw vs sure
60% similar
screw vs sore
60% similar

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

Key facts for screw
PropertyValue
Headwordscrew
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/skɹuː/
Letters5
Frequency rank#4,710
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “screw”

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).screwlands 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 “rude” (#4,709), “seventh” (#4,711), “Roy” (#4,708). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “screw” is #4,710. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around screw (IPA /skɹuː/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,710 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 18 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for screw, with forms such as "csrew", "sccrew", and "scerw". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sew", "sure", "sore", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English screw, scrue (“screw”); apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue (“nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole”), from Latin scrōfa (“female pig”) through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's penis. There i… The correct English form is screw, spelled S-C-R-E-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    A device that has a helical function.
  2. 2
    A device that has a helical function.
  3. 3
    A device that has a helical function.
  4. 4
    A device that has a helical function.
  5. 5
    A device that has a helical function.
  6. 6
    The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
  7. 7
    A prison guard.
  8. 8
    An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
  9. 9
    An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.
  10. 10
    Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing.
  11. 11
    A casual sexual partner.
  12. 12
    Salary, wages.
  13. 13
    Backspin.
  14. 14
    A small quantity of a material such as salt or tobacco wrapped in twist of paper.
  15. 15
    An old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse.
  16. 16
    A straight line in space with which a definite linear magnitude termed the pitch is associated. It is used to express the displacement of a rigid body, which may always be made to consist of a rotation about an axis combined with a translation parallel to that axis.
  17. 17
    An amphipod crustacean.
  18. 18
    Rheumatism.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. It is never possible to settle down to the ordinary routine of life at sea until the screw begins to revolve. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.
  2. The screws moved her out of my cell because they could not stand the idea of a black and white white being together.

Etymology

From Middle English screw, scrue (“screw”); apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue (“nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole”), from Latin scrōfa (“female pig”) through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's penis. There is also the Old French escruve (“screw”), from Old Dutch *scrūva ("screw"; whence Middle Dutch schruyve (“screw”)), which probably influenced or conflated with the aforementioned, resulting in the Middle English word. more on the etymology of screw Old French escroue (whence Medieval Latin scrofa (“nut, screwhole”)), is believed to be an adaptation of Latin scrōfa (“sow, female pig”); but this development is not found in other Romance languages. (For change in meaning, compare also Spanish puerca, Portuguese porca, both ‘sow; screw nut’, and is based on the fact that a boar's penis has a screw-like tip, making the sow's vulva equivalent to a screw nut by analogy). Old Dutch *scrūva possibly derives from Proto-Germanic *skrūbō (“screw”), from *skru- (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keru-, *(s)ker- (“to cut”), and is related to German Schraube (“screw”), Low German schruve, schruwe (“screw”), Dutch schroef (“screw”), West Frisian skroef (“screw”), Danish skrue (“screw”), Swedish skruv (“screw, peg”), Icelandic skrúfa (“screw”). Compare also Occitan escrofa (“screw nut”), Calabrese scrufina (“screw nut”), which may be borrowings of the Old French word, or parallel developments.

This word in other languages

tornillo(Español)vis(Français)Schraube(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • csrew
  • sccrew
  • scerw
  • screww
  • scrrew
  • scrwe
  • srcew
  • sscrew

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of screw - 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.

csrew2sccrew1scerw2screww1scrrew1scrwe2srcew2sscrew1
Edit distance from "screw"

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 "screw"?
"screw" is spelled S-C-R-E-W. The IPA pronunciation is /skɹuː/.
What does "screw" mean?
As a noun, "screw" means: A device that has a helical function.
What words are commonly confused with "screw"?
"screw" is commonly confused with "sew", "sure", "sore". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "screw"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "screw" is /skɹuː/. 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 "screw"?
From Middle English screw, scrue (“screw”); apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue (“nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole”), from Latin scrōfa (“female pig”) through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's peni... 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 "screw", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

reads#4,705suits#4,719venue#4,725outer#4,694

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

sooner8 variantsquotes8 variantsmercy8 variantsloaded8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list