skulking
"skulking" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“skulking” is uncommon English (frequency #72,768 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #72,768
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The action of one who skulks.
Corpus desk
Index EN-skulking · skulking · English
skulking · rank #72,768 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #72,768
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH slather
Nearest frequency peer: slather (+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.
Long-tail ranks near “skulking”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- silversmith
silversmith
27,237 corpus weight
- Siskiyou
Siskiyou
27,236 corpus weight
- skulking
skulking
27,233 corpus weight
- slather
slather
27,232 corpus weight
- slopestyle
slopestyle
27,231 corpus weight
- Slurpee
Slurpee
27,230 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “skulking” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | skulking |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #72,768 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “skulking” in English
Rare enough to double-check
skulking is uncommon English at frequency #72,768 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The action of one who skulks.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for skulking in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is skulking, spelled S-K-U-L-K-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The action of one who skulks.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how skulking appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You will know them by their sly looks; their skulkings, peepings, watchings, and the snares they lay;—by the great papers, with great seals, that they carry; […]
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "skulking", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).