scull
/skʌl/
"scull" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scull” is uncommon English (frequency #67,816 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #67,816
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A single oar mounted at the stern of a boat and moved from side to side to propel the boat forward.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | scull |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /skʌl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #67,816 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “scull” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
scull is uncommon English at frequency #67,816 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /skʌl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
scull doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sculle (“a type of oar”), of uncertain origin, possibly from North Germanic, from Old Norse skola (“to rinse, wash”). The correct English form is scull, spelled S-C-U-L-L.
Definition
- 1A single oar mounted at the stern of a boat and moved from side to side to propel the boat forward.
- 2One of a pair of oars handled by a single rower.
- 3A small rowing boat, for one person.
- 4A light rowing boat used for racing by one, two, or four rowers, each operating two oars (sculls), one in each hand.
Etymology
From Middle English sculle (“a type of oar”), of uncertain origin, possibly from North Germanic, from Old Norse skola (“to rinse, wash”).
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 “scull”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-U-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /skʌl/ (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.