sighting
/ˈsaɪtɪŋ/
"sighting" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sighting” has 13 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #19,697. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #19,697
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of catching sight of something, especially something searched for.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sighting · sighting · English
sighting · rank #19,697 · 13 variants · 6 confusables
- FREQ-MID #19,697
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 13 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shrug
Nearest frequency peer: shrug (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “sighting”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- serenity
serenity
80,307 corpus weight
- shading
shading
80,306 corpus weight
- shrug
shrug
80,305 corpus weight
- sighting
sighting
80,304 corpus weight
- sipping
sipping
80,302 corpus weight
- Siri
Siri
80,301 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sighting” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | sighting |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsaɪtɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #19,697 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sighting” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 13 spelling variants around sighting (IPA /ˈsaɪtɪŋ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #19,697 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "The act of catching sight of something, especially something searched for.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for sighting, with forms such as "isghting", "sgihting", and "sigghting". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "siting", "sitting", "signing", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is sighting, spelled S-I-G-H-T-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The act of catching sight of something, especially something searched for.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sighting appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
There will be a small prize for the first sighting of a seal.
However, many people—including railwaymen—are only beginning to realise how great is the amount of civil engineering work necessary to achieve adequate clearances for high-voltage overhead equipment under bridges and tunnels; what is involved in the re-signalling needed to permit the increased throughput of traffic (in some places it is unavoidable, to af…
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- isghting
- sgihting
- sigghting
- sighhting
- sighitng
- sightign
- sightingg
- sightinng
- sightnig
- sightting
- sigthing
- sihgting
- ssighting
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sighting - 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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sighting"?
What does "sighting" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sighting"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sighting", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (13 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "sighting". Here's where to go from here.
- "sighting" maps to 6 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "siting". View pair
- 13 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #19,697 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.