selfless
"selfless" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“selfless” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #19,693. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #19,693
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having, exhibiting or motivated by no concern for oneself but for others; unselfish.
Corpus desk
Index EN-selfless · selfless · English
selfless · rank #19,693 · 11 variants · 2 confusables
- FREQ-MID #19,693
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH sclerosis
Nearest frequency peer: sclerosis (-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 “selfless”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- scented
scented
80,310 corpus weight
- sclerosis
sclerosis
80,309 corpus weight
- selfless
selfless
80,308 corpus weight
- serenity
serenity
80,307 corpus weight
- shading
shading
80,306 corpus weight
- shrug
shrug
80,305 corpus weight
What this shows “selfless” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | selfless |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #19,693 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “selfless”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around selfless, anadjective. Corpus frequency is #19,693 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Having, exhibiting or motivated by no concern for oneself but for others; unselfish.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for selfless, with forms such as "eslfless", "seflless", and "selfelss". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "sellers", "seamless", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From self + -less. The correct English form is selfless, spelled S-E-L-F-L-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Having, exhibiting or motivated by no concern for oneself but for others; unselfish.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how selfless appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In a selfless act of gratitude for saving his mother's life, Peter committed to giving money to his local breast cancer charity each year for the rest of his life.
Because a certain degree of selfless behavior is essential to the smooth performance of any human group, selflessness run amok can crop up in political contexts.
Etymology
From self + -less.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- eslfless
- seflless
- selfelss
- selffless
- selfles
- selflless
- selflses
- sellfess
- sellfless
- slefless
- sselfless
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of selfless - 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.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "selfless", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).