sediment
/ˈsɛd.ɪ.mənt/
"sediment" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sediment” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #16,790 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #16,790
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A collection of small particles, particularly dirt, that precipitates from a river or other body of water.
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 | sediment |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɛd.ɪ.mənt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #16,790 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sediment” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sediment is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɛd.ɪ.mənt/. Corpus data places it at rank #16,790 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A collection of small particles, particularly dirt, that precipitates from a river or other body of water.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for sediment, with forms such as "esdiment", "sdeiment", and "seddiment". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "segment", "sentiment", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French sédiment, from Latin sedimentum < sedeō. The correct English form is sediment, spelled S-E-D-I-M-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1A collection of small particles, particularly dirt, that precipitates from a river or other body of water.
Etymology
From Middle French sédiment, from Latin sedimentum < sedeō.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: esdiment,sdeiment,seddiment,sediemnt,sedimennt,sedimentt,sedimetn,sedimment,sedimnet,sedmient,seidment,ssediment
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sediment - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “sediment”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-D-I-M-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsɛd.ɪ.mənt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “segment” - see the side-by-side comparison. sediment vs segment
- 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.