skull
/ˈskʌl/
"skull" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“skull” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,183 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,183
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.
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 | skull |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈskʌl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,183 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “skull” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for skull is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈskʌl/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,183 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for skull, with forms such as "ksull", "skkull", and "sklul". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Sul", "soul", "Sulu", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sculle, scolle (also schulle, scholle), probably from a dialectal form of Old Norse skalli (“bald head, skull”), itself probably related to Old English sċealu (“husk”), to Proto-Norse *ᛋᚲᚨᛚᛟ (*skalo), from Proto-Germanic *skallô; compare… The correct English form is skull, spelled S-K-U-L-L.
Definition
- 1The main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.
- 2These bones as a symbol for death; death's-head.
- 3The mind or brain.
- 4A crust formed on the ladle, etc. by the partial cooling of molten metal.
- 5The crown of the headpiece in armour.
- 6A shallow bow-handled basket.
- 7The head or master of a college.
Etymology
From Middle English sculle, scolle (also schulle, scholle), probably from a dialectal form of Old Norse skalli (“bald head, skull”), itself probably related to Old English sċealu (“husk”), to Proto-Norse *ᛋᚲᚨᛚᛟ (*skalo), from Proto-Germanic *skallô; compare Finnish skallo. Compare Scots scull, Danish skal (“skull”) and skalle (“bald head, skull”), Norwegian skalle, Swedish skalle and especially dialectal Swedish skulle. Related to Old Norse skoltr (“brow”), skolptr (“muzzle, snout”), akin to Icelandic skoltur (“jaw”), dialectal Swedish skult, skulle (“dome, crown of the head, skull”), Norwegian Nynorsk skult, skolt (“cranium, head (of a hammer); crag; hub”), Middle Dutch scolle, scholle, Middle Low German scholle, schulle (“clod, sod”), and Scots skult, skolt. Compare also Old High German sciula, skiula (“skull”). Possibly related to Latin celsus (“lofty, high, tall”), collis (“hill”). Also related to Old Norse skǫllóttr, Icelandic sköllóttur, Old Swedish skallotter, Swedish skallig, Danish skaldet, Norwegian skallet (“bald”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ksull,skkull,sklul,skul,sskull,sukll
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of skull - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “skull”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-K-U-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈskʌl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Sul” - see the side-by-side comparison. skull vs Sul
- 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.