sift
/sɪft/
"sift" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sift” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,368 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #28,368
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To sieve or strain (something).
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 | sift |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /sɪft/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #28,368 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sift” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sift is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɪft/. Corpus data places it at rank #28,368 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for sift, with forms such as "isft", "sfit", and "sifft". 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, "six", "sir", "sit", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English syften, from Old English siftan, from Proto-West Germanic *siftijan. The correct English form is sift, spelled S-I-F-T.
Definition
- 1To sieve or strain (something).
- 2To separate or scatter (things) as if by sieving.
- 3To examine (something) carefully.
- 4To examine (something) carefully.
- 5To move data records up in memory to make space to insert further records.
Etymology
From Middle English syften, from Old English siftan, from Proto-West Germanic *siftijan.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: isft,sfit,sifft,siftt,sitf,ssift
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sift - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
How do you spell "sift"?
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Using “sift”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-I-F-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɪft/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “six” - see the side-by-side comparison. sift vs six
- 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.