sight
/saɪt/
"sight" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sight” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,808 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,808
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The ability to see.
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 | sight |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /saɪt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,808 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sight” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sight is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /saɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,808 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for sight, with forms such as "isght", "sgiht", and "sigght". 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, "sit", "sign", "Sikh", 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 siȝht, siȝt, siht, from Old English siht, sihþ (“something seen; vision”), from Proto-West Germanic *sihti, equivalent to see + -t. Cognate with Scots sicht, Saterland Frisian Sicht, West Frisian sicht, Dutch zicht, German Low German Sic… The correct English form is sight, spelled S-I-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1The ability to see.
- 2The act of seeing; perception of objects by the eye; view.
- 3Something seen.
- 4Something worth seeing; a spectacle, either good or bad.
- 5A device used in aiming a projectile, through which the person aiming looks at the intended target.
- 6A small aperture through which objects are to be seen, and by which their direction is settled or ascertained.
- 7a great deal, a lot; frequently used to intensify a comparative.
- 8In a drawing, picture, etc., that part of the surface, as of paper or canvas, which is within the frame or the border or margin. In a frame, the open space, the opening.
- 9The instrument of seeing; the eye.
- 10Mental view; opinion; judgment.
Etymology
From Middle English siȝht, siȝt, siht, from Old English siht, sihþ (“something seen; vision”), from Proto-West Germanic *sihti, equivalent to see + -t. Cognate with Scots sicht, Saterland Frisian Sicht, West Frisian sicht, Dutch zicht, German Low German Sicht, German Sicht, Danish sigte, Swedish sikte.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: isght,sgiht,sigght,sighht,sightt,sigth,sihgt,ssight
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sight - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “sight”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-I-G-H-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /saɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sit” - see the side-by-side comparison. sight vs sit
- 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.