silkworm
/ˈsɪlkwɜːm/
"silkworm" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“silkworm” is uncommon English (frequency #59,704 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,704
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various caterpillars of moths that produce silk cocoons, especially Bombyx mori, the source of most commercial silk.
Corpus desk
Index EN-silkworm · silkworm · English
silkworm · rank #59,704 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #59,704
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 54,294
- PHOTO-FINISH showgirl
Nearest frequency peer: showgirl (-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 “silkworm”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Shani
Shani
40,303 corpus weight
- shapeshifter
shapeshifter
40,302 corpus weight
- shivered
shivered
40,300 corpus weight
- showgirl
showgirl
40,298 corpus weight
- silkworm
silkworm
40,297 corpus weight
- slaver
slaver
40,293 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “silkworm” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | silkworm |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪlkwɜːm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #59,704 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “silkworm” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
silkworm is uncommon English at frequency #59,704 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsɪlkwɜːm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of various caterpillars of moths that produce silk cocoons, especially Bombyx mori, the source of most commercial silk.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for silkworm in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English silkwirm, from Old English seolcwyrm (“silkworm”), equivalent to silk + worm. The correct English form is silkworm, spelled S-I-L-K-W-O-R-M.
Definition
- 1Any of various caterpillars of moths that produce silk cocoons, especially Bombyx mori, the source of most commercial silk.
Etymology
From Middle English silkwirm, from Old English seolcwyrm (“silkworm”), equivalent to silk + worm.
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); 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 May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "silkworm", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.