seed
/siːd/
"seed" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“seed” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,846 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,846
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.
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 | seed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /siːd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #3,846 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “seed” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for seed is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /siːd/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,846 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for seed, with forms such as "esed", "sede", and "seedd". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "she", "set", "sex", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: ] From Middle English seed, sede, side, from Old English sēd, sǣd (“seed, that which is sown”), from Proto-West Germanic *sād, from Proto-Germanic *sēdą, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, throw”). Cognates Cognate with Yola zeade (“seed”), North Fri… The correct English form is seed, spelled S-E-E-D.
Definition
- 1Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.
- 2Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.
- 3Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs.
- 4An amount of seeds that cannot be readily counted.
- 5A fragment of coral.
- 6Semen.
- 7A precursor.
- 8The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.
- 9The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.
- 10The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.
- 11The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.
- 12The initial state, condition or position of a changing, growing or developing process; the ultimate precursor in a defined chain of precursors.
- 13Offspring, descendants, progeny.
- 14Race; generation; birth.
- 15A small particle, bubble, or imperfection that serves as a nucleation point for some process.
- 16A small bubble formed in imperfectly fused glass.
- 17A child.
Etymology
] From Middle English seed, sede, side, from Old English sēd, sǣd (“seed, that which is sown”), from Proto-West Germanic *sād, from Proto-Germanic *sēdą, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (“to sow, throw”). Cognates Cognate with Yola zeade (“seed”), North Frisian sead, seed, siad, Siid, sädj, säid (“seed”), Saterland Frisian Säid (“seed”), West Frisian sied (“seed”), Dutch zaad (“seed”), German Saat (“seed; sowing”), Limburgish zaod (“seed”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk sæd (“seed”), Faroese and Icelandic sáð (“seed”), Swedish säd (“seed”), Gothic *𐍃𐌴𐌸𐍃 (*sēþs, “seed”); also Latin serō (“to sow, plant”), Latvian sēt (“to sow”), Lithuanian sėti (“to sow”), Bulgarian се́я (séja, “to sow, plant”), Czech sít (“to sow”), Macedonian сее (see, “to sow”), Polish siać (“to sow”), Russian се́ять (séjatʹ, “to sow”), Serbo-Croatian се̏јати, sȅjati, си̏јати, sȉjati (“to sow”), Slovak siať (“to sow”), Slovene sejáti (“to sow”), Ukrainian сі́яти (síjaty, “to sow”). More at sow.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: esed,sede,seedd,sseed
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of seed - 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 “seed”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /siːd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “she” - see the side-by-side comparison. seed vs she
- 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.