skull
/ˈskʌl/
"skull" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“skull” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #6,183. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #6,183
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The main bones of the head considered as a unit; including the cranium, facial bones, and mandible.
Corpus desk
Index EN-skull · skull · English
skull · rank #6,183 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,183
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH should've
Nearest frequency peer: should've (-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 “skull”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- servant
servant
93,821 corpus weight
- setup
setup
93,820 corpus weight
- should've
should've
93,819 corpus weight
- skull
skull
93,818 corpus weight
- slot
slot
93,817 corpus weight
- smash
smash
93,816 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “skull” 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 | 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
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around skull (IPA /ˈskʌl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,183 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how skull appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs were being beaten by the vigorous arms of as many young men, producing such a deafening discord that I was glad to escape to the round house, where I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head.
He was about to roar when, lying among the black sticks and straw under the cliff, he saw a whole skull—perhaps a cow's skull, a skull, perhaps, with the teeth in it. Sobbing, but absent-mindedly, he ran farther and farther away until he held the skull in his arms.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "skull", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "skull". Here's where to go from here.
- "skull" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "Sul". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #6,183 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.