sixteen
/ˈsɪks.tiːn/
"sixteen" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sixteen” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,743 in English word frequency and used as a numeral.
- #7,743
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The cardinal number occurring after fifteen and before seventeen, represented in Arabic numerals as 16 and in Roman numerals as XVI.
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 | sixteen |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Numeral |
| IPA | /ˈsɪks.tiːn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #7,743 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sixteen” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sixteen is 7 letters long, classified as a numeral, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɪks.tiːn/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,743 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The cardinal number occurring after fifteen and before seventeen, represented in Arabic numerals as 16 and in Roman numerals as XVI.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for sixteen, with forms such as "isxteen", "sitxeen", and "sixeten". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "steen", "sixties", "sixteenth", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English sextene, sixtene, from Old English sixtīene, from Proto-Germanic *sehstehun. Cognate with West Frisian sechstjin, Dutch zestien, German sechzehn, Danish seksten. Equivalent to six + -teen. The correct English form is sixteen, spelled S-I-X-T-E-E-N.
Definition
- 1The cardinal number occurring after fifteen and before seventeen, represented in Arabic numerals as 16 and in Roman numerals as XVI.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English sextene, sixtene, from Old English sixtīene, from Proto-Germanic *sehstehun. Cognate with West Frisian sechstjin, Dutch zestien, German sechzehn, Danish seksten. Equivalent to six + -teen.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: isxteen,sitxeen,sixeten,sixteenn,sixten,sixtene,sixtteen,sixxteen,ssixteen,sxiteen
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sixteen - 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 “sixteen”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-I-X-T-E-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsɪks.tiːn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “steen” - see the side-by-side comparison. sixteen vs steen
- 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.