silicate
/ˈsɪlɪkət/
"silicate" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“silicate” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #43,371 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #43,371
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any salt of silica or of one of the silicic acids; any mineral composed of silicates.
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 | silicate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪlɪkət/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #43,371 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “silicate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for silicate is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɪlɪkət/. Corpus data places it at rank #43,371 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Any salt of silica or of one of the silicic acids; any mineral composed of silicates.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for silicate, with forms such as "islicate", "siilcate", and "silciate". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "silicone", "silica", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From silicic acid + -ate (“salt or ester”). The correct English form is silicate, spelled S-I-L-I-C-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1Any salt of silica or of one of the silicic acids; any mineral composed of silicates.
Etymology
From silicic acid + -ate (“salt or ester”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: islicate,siilcate,silciate,siliacte,silicaet,silicatte,siliccate,silictae,sillicate,sliicate,ssilicate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of silicate - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “silicate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-I-L-I-C-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsɪlɪkət/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “silicone” - see the side-by-side comparison. silicate vs silicone
- 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.