sign language
"sign-language" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sign language” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One of several natural languages, typically used by the deaf, in which words consist of hand shapes, motions, positions, and facial expressions.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sign-language · sign language · English
sign language · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sign language |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sign language” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sign language is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for sign language in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is sign language, spelled S-I-G-N- -L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1One of several natural languages, typically used by the deaf, in which words consist of hand shapes, motions, positions, and facial expressions.
- 2The sign language (sense 1) that is used locally or that is mistakenly believed to be the only one.
- 3Sign languages (sense 1) considered collectively.
- 4Communication through gestures as a substitute for language, for example, between monks under a vow of silence or during trade amongst different linguistic groups.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sign language appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It is safe to say that the academic world is now convinced that sign languages are real languages in every sense of the term.
I'm taking night classes to learn sign language.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.