sike
/saɪk/
"sike" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sike” is an uncommon English word, ranked #84,750 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #84,750
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A gutter or ditch; a small stream that frequently dries up in the summer; the marshy ground or ditch through which such a stream flows.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sike |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /saɪk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #84,750 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sike” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sike is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /saɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #84,750 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A gutter or ditch; a small stream that frequently dries up in the summer; the marshy ground or ditch through which such a stream flows.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sike, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Northern Middle English sike, from Old English sīċ (see sitch), possibly also from or related to Old Norse sík; both from Proto-Germanic *sīką (“slow flowing water; trickle”). Cognate with Norwegian sik. Compare Scots sheuch. The correct English form is sike, spelled S-I-K-E.
Definition
- 1A gutter or ditch; a small stream that frequently dries up in the summer; the marshy ground or ditch through which such a stream flows.
Etymology
From Northern Middle English sike, from Old English sīċ (see sitch), possibly also from or related to Old Norse sík; both from Proto-Germanic *sīką (“slow flowing water; trickle”). Cognate with Norwegian sik. Compare Scots sheuch.
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 “sike”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-I-K-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /saɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.