silverfish
"silverfish" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“silverfish” is uncommon English (frequency #87,829 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,829
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Certain insects
Corpus desk
Index EN-silverfish · silverfish · English
silverfish · rank #87,829 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,829
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 54,294
- PHOTO-FINISH sinewy
Nearest frequency peer: sinewy (+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 “silverfish”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- sildenafil
sildenafil
12,174 corpus weight
- silverfish
silverfish
12,172 corpus weight
- sinewy
sinewy
12,171 corpus weight
- Singhal
Singhal
12,170 corpus weight
- Skeffington
Skeffington
12,167 corpus weight
- skene
skene
12,166 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “silverfish” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | silverfish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #87,829 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “silverfish” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
silverfish is uncommon English at frequency #87,829 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 20 senses are on record.
silverfish doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From silver + fish: from its appearance, in the case of the insect. The correct English form is silverfish, spelled S-I-L-V-E-R-F-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1Certain insects
- 2Certain insects
- 3Certain insects
- 4Certain fish
- 5Certain fish
- 6Certain fish
- 7Certain fish
- 8Certain fish
- 9Certain fish
- 10Certain fish
- 11Certain fish
- 12Certain fish
- 13Certain fish
- 14Certain fish
- 15Certain fish
- 16Certain fish
- 17Certain fish
- 18Certain fish
- 19Certain fish
- 20Certain fish
Etymology
From silver + fish: from its appearance, in the case of the insect.
Synonyms
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 "silverfish", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 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.