skink
/skɪŋk/
"skink" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“skink” is uncommon English (frequency #80,892 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,892
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - A shin of beef.
Corpus desk
Index EN-skink · skink · English
skink · rank #80,892 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #80,892
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH slashdot
Nearest frequency peer: slashdot (+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 “skink”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Simpkins
Simpkins
19,113 corpus weight
- sinfonia
sinfonia
19,112 corpus weight
- sintered
sintered
19,111 corpus weight
- skink
skink
19,109 corpus weight
- slashdot
slashdot
19,108 corpus weight
- slimmest
slimmest
19,106 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “skink” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | skink |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /skɪŋk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #80,892 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “skink” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
skink is uncommon English at frequency #80,892 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /skɪŋk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for skink, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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: Possibly from Middle Low German schink, schinke, schenke (“leg; shank; shin bone; ham”), from Old Saxon skinka, from Proto-West Germanic *skinkō (“shank; thigh; that which is bent”), from Proto-Germanic *skinkô, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (“to limp;… The correct English form is skink, spelled S-K-I-N-K.
Definition
- 1A shin of beef.
- 2A soup or pottage made from a boiled shin of beef.
- 3Usually preceded by a descriptive word: a soup or pottage made using other ingredients.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how skink appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
lean sirloin, skink and pot-roast
For there are in the Flesh , Bones , Skinnes , organs , and the severall limbes of the living body : such spirits as are in the Flesh , Bone , and Skinke , beeing separated
Etymology
Possibly from Middle Low German schink, schinke, schenke (“leg; shank; shin bone; ham”), from Old Saxon skinka, from Proto-West Germanic *skinkō (“shank; thigh; that which is bent”), from Proto-Germanic *skinkô, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (“to limp; to be crooked, slant”). The word is cognate with Danish skinke (“ham”), Middle Dutch schenke, schinke (“shin; hough; ham”), Icelandic skinka (“ham”), Norwegian skinke (“ham”), Old English ġesċincio, ġesċinco (“kidney fat”), Old High German skinka, skinko (“shank; shin bone”) (Middle High German schinke (“shank; shin bone; ham”), modern German Schinken (“ham; pork from the hindquarters”)), Old Saxon skinka (“ham”), Old Swedish skinke (modern Swedish skinka (“ham”)).
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 2, 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 "skink", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #80,892 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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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.