sibyl
/ˈsɪ.bəl/
"sibyl" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sibyl” is uncommon English (frequency #56,437 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,437
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A pagan female oracle or prophetess, especially the Cumaean sibyl.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sibyl · sibyl · English
sibyl · rank #56,437 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #56,437
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shunting
Nearest frequency peer: shunting (-2 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.
Long-tail ranks near “sibyl”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Shlomo
Shlomo
43,568 corpus weight
- Shoshone
Shoshone
43,567 corpus weight
- shunting
shunting
43,566 corpus weight
- sibyl
sibyl
43,564 corpus weight
- Silverton
Silverton
43,562 corpus weight
- Simonds
Simonds
43,560 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sibyl” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sibyl |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪ.bəl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #56,437 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sibyl” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sibyl is uncommon English at frequency #56,437 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsɪ.bəl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A pagan female oracle or prophetess, especially the Cumaean sibyl.".
Zero misspellings are on record for sibyl in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin Sibylla, from Ancient Greek Σίβυλλα (Síbulla). The correct English form is sibyl, spelled S-I-B-Y-L.
Definition
- 1A pagan female oracle or prophetess, especially the Cumaean sibyl.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sibyl appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A Sybill that had numbred in the world The Sun to courſe, two hundred compaſſes, In her Prophetticke furie ſow'd the Worke:
"Are you very anxious," asked he, "to consult the sibyl?" "Nay," replied Francesea; "I want faith." "You will," replied he, "nevertheless be amused with Madame de I'Hôpital's tact; she knows enough of the history of the individuals around to give a shrewd guess at the favourite fantasy of each, and that it will be successful is the summing up of her proph…
Etymology
From Latin Sibylla, from Ancient Greek Σίβυλλα (Síbulla).
This word in other languages
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 "sibyl", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).