shoal
/ʃəʊl/
"shoal" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shoal” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #31,762. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #31,762
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Shallow.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shoal · shoal · English
shoal · rank #31,762 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #31,762
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Sigmund
Nearest frequency peer: Sigmund (+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 “shoal”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- separator
separator
68,242 corpus weight
- sequestrati…
sequestration
68,241 corpus weight
- shoal
shoal
68,239 corpus weight
- Sigmund
Sigmund
68,238 corpus weight
- sledgehammer
sledgehammer
68,237 corpus weight
- sleeved
sleeved
68,236 corpus weight
What this shows “shoal” 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 | shoal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ʃəʊl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #31,762 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “shoal”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around shoal (IPA /ʃəʊl/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #31,762 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Shallow.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for shoal, with forms such as "hsoal", "shaol", and "shhoal". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sol", "SoA", "show", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English schold, scholde, from Old English sċeald (“shallow”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *skalidaz, past participle of *skaljaną (“to go dry, dry up, become shallow”), from *skalaz (“parched, shallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to … The correct English form is shoal, spelled S-H-O-A-L.
Definition
- 1Shallow.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how shoal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
But that part of the coast being shoal and bare, / And rough with reefs which ran out many a mile, / His port lay on the other side o' the isle.
All told, we had scarce two miles to run; but the navigation was delicate, the entrance to this northern anchorage was not only narrow and shoal, but lay east and west, so that the schooner must be nicely handled to be got in.
Etymology
From Middle English schold, scholde, from Old English sċeald (“shallow”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *skalidaz, past participle of *skaljaną (“to go dry, dry up, become shallow”), from *skalaz (“parched, shallow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelh₁- (“to dry out”). Cognate with Low German Scholl (“shallow water”), German schal (“stale, flat, vapid”). Compare shallow.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hsoal
- shaol
- shhoal
- shoall
- shola
- sohal
- sshoal
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shoal - 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 "shoal", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).