# Seoul

> English word · Proper noun · IPA /səʊl/ · frequency rank #7,975

## Definitions
1. The capital city of South Korea, also the historical capital of Korea from 1394 until the country was divided in 1945.
2. the South Korean government

## Etymology
From Korean 서울 (Seoul, literally “capital city”), originally from Claude-Charles Dallet's French-based romanization of Korean, reinforced by the 1959 South Korean Ministry of Education romanization of Korean, which transcribed the Korean vowel ㅓ (/⁠ʌ⁠/) with the digraph "eo" and which was official until 1984.
Note that English Seoul predates the Revised Romanization romanization of Seoul. The two romanization systems simply produce identical forms.

## Easily confused with
- **sol** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-sol)
- **Sul** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-sul)
- **sou** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-sou)
- **soul** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-soul)
- **soil** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-soil)
- **soup** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-soup)
- **sour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-sour)
- **sous** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-sous)
- **souls** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-souls)
- **setup** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-setup)
- **shout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-shout)
- **spoil** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-spoil)
- **serum** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-serum)
- **stool** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-stool)
- **stout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-stout)
- **Sioux** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-sioux)
- **spout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-spout)
- **snout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-snout)
- **shoal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-shoal)
- **spool** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/seoul-vs-spool)

## Common misspellings (6)
`esoul`, `seolu`, `seoull`, `seuol`, `soeul`, `sseoul`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/seoul