sharpie
/ˈʃɑɹpi/
"sharpie" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sharpie” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #40,439 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #40,439
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An alert person.
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 | sharpie |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃɑɹpi/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #40,439 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sharpie” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sharpie is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃɑɹpi/. Corpus data places it at rank #40,439 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for sharpie, with forms such as "hsarpie", "sahrpie", and "shaprie". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "sharps", "sharply", "share", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From sharp + -ie (“diminutive suffix”). The correct English form is sharpie, spelled S-H-A-R-P-I-E.
Definition
- 1An alert person.
- 2A knowledgeable fisherman.
- 3A swindler.
- 4A long, narrow fishing boat used in shallow waters.
- 5Clipping of sharp-shinned hawk.
- 6Clipping of sharp-tailed sandpiper.
- 7A member of a violent, fashionably dressed youth gang of the 1960s and 1970s.
- 8A Sharpie or other brand of felt-tipped marker pen.
Etymology
From sharp + -ie (“diminutive suffix”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsarpie,sahrpie,shaprie,sharipe,sharpei,sharppie,sharrpie,shharpie,shrapie,ssharpie
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sharpie - 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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Using “sharpie”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-A-R-P-I-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʃɑɹpi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sharps” - see the side-by-side comparison. sharpie vs sharps
- 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.