sewing-machine

noun

"sewing-machine" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sewing-machine” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dated form of sewing machine.

Corpus desk

Index EN-sewing-machine · sewing-machine · English

sewing-machine · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for sewing-machine
PropertyValue
Headwordsewing-machine
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “sewing-machine” in English

sewing-machineranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sewing-machine is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Dated form of sewing machine.".

sewing-machine doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is sewing-machine, spelled S-E-W-I-N-G---M-A-C-H-I-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Dated form of sewing machine.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how sewing-machine appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The peculiarity of this invention consists in a means for varying the angle at which the plaiting-blade is held in the plaiter without varying the position of the entire instrument upon the sewing-machine.
  2. The mother, a hard, hook-nosed creature, was doing up a bundle of overalls she had but finished at the sewing-machine.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sewing-machine"?
"sewing-machine" is spelled S-E-W-I-N-G---M-A-C-H-I-N-E.
What does "sewing-machine" mean?
As a noun, "sewing-machine" means: Dated form of sewing machine.
What language does "sewing-machine" come from?
"sewing-machine" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list