six
/sɪks/
"six" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“six” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #519) as a numeral. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #519
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A numerical value equal to 6; the number following five and preceding seven. This number of dots: (••••••).
Corpus desk
Index EN-six · six · English
six · rank #519 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #519
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH quite
Nearest frequency peer: quite (-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 “six”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- plan
plan
99,485 corpus weight
- political
political
99,484 corpus weight
- quite
quite
99,483 corpus weight
- six
six
99,482 corpus weight
- talking
talking
99,481 corpus weight
- west
west
99,480 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “six” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | six |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Numeral |
| IPA | /sɪks/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #519 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “six” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for six is neighbouring look-alikes ("so", "SS", …), not just typos; it is anumeral pronounced /sɪks/. Frequency #519 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Gloss: "A numerical value equal to 6; the number following five and preceding seven. This number of dots: (••••••).".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for six, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "so", "SS", "SP", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *swéḱs From Middle English six, from Old English six, from Proto-West Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs. Compare West Frisian seis, Dutch zes, Low German söss, sess, German sechs, Norwegian and Danish seks,… The correct English form is six, spelled S-I-X.
Definition
- 1A numerical value equal to 6; the number following five and preceding seven. This number of dots: (••••••).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how six appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Gunshots rang out in the capital Abuja and also in the neighboring Niger state as police lobbed tear gas to disperse defiant protesters. In Niger, at least six people are now feared dead, local media reported.
Etymology
PIE word *swéḱs From Middle English six, from Old English six, from Proto-West Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Germanic *sehs, from Proto-Indo-European *swéḱs. Compare West Frisian seis, Dutch zes, Low German söss, sess, German sechs, Norwegian and Danish seks, also Latin sex, Ancient Greek ἕξ (héx), Sanskrit षष् (ṣaṣ). Doublet of sice. Toilet sense predates military usage.
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 September 3, 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 "six", not the corpus desk frequency band.
What to do next
You've looked up "six". Here's where to go from here.
- "six" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "so". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #519 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.