slab

/slæb/

//slæb// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"slab" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“slab” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #15,277. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#15,277
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.

Corpus desk

Index EN-slab · slab · English

slab · rank #15,277 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #15,277
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH skyline

Nearest frequency peer: skyline (-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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “slab”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “slab” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

slab vs sub
50% similar
slab vs spa
50% similar
slab vs sly
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for slab
PropertyValue
Headwordslab
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/slæb/
Letters4
Frequency rank#15,277
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “slab”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).slablands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “skyline” (#15,276), “sprayed” (#15,278), “stacks” (#15,279). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “slab” is #15,277. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around slab (IPA /slæb/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #15,277 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 14 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for slab, with forms such as "lsab", "salb", and "slabb". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sub", "spa", "sly", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sclabbe, slabbe, of uncertain origin; possibly from *slap, related to dialectal slappel (“portion, piece”), along with slape (“slippery”), sleip (“smooth piece of timber”), borrowed through Old Norse sleipr from Proto-Germanic *slaipaz, … The correct English form is slab, spelled S-L-A-B.

Definition

  1. 1
    A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.
  2. 2
    A paving stone; a flagstone.
  3. 3
    A carton containing 24 cans (chiefly of beer).
  4. 4
    An outside piece taken from a log or timber when sawing it into boards, planks, etc.
  5. 5
    The slack part of a sail.
  6. 6
    A very large wave.
  7. 7
    The amount by which a cache can grow or shrink, used in memory allocation.
  8. 8
    Part of a tectonic plate that is being, or has been, subducted.
  9. 9
    A poured-concrete foundation for a building.
  10. 10
    A region between two parallel lines in the Euclidean plane, or between two parallel planes in three-dimensional Euclidean space, or between two hyperplanes in higher dimensions.
  11. 11
    Any of the several portions or tiers in a tax rate plan.
  12. 12
    A flat, sealed plastic case that encloses a flat collector's item, such as a coin or a trading card.
  13. 13
    A large, luxury pre-1980 General Motors vehicle, particularly a Buick, Oldsmobile, or Cadillac.
  14. 14
    Ellipsis of slab avalanche.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how slab appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. There were no windows in the inn. They were not required, since the interstices between the slabs suffered the wind, the rain, and the light of day to penetrate simultaneously.
  2. Then there was the Mexican who sold big slabs of chewing taffy for five cents each. […] And many a day I made my entire lunch off of one of those slabs.

Etymology

From Middle English sclabbe, slabbe, of uncertain origin; possibly from *slap, related to dialectal slappel (“portion, piece”), along with slape (“slippery”), sleip (“smooth piece of timber”), borrowed through Old Norse sleipr from Proto-Germanic *slaipaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leyb-. See also Norwegian sleip (“slippery”) and Icelandic sleipur.

This word in other languages

plancha(Español)chape(Français)Scheibe(Deutsch)laje(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • lsab
  • salb
  • slabb
  • slba
  • sllab
  • sslab

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of slab - 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.

lsab2salb2slabb1slba2sllab1sslab1
Edit distance from "slab"

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

How do you spell "slab"?
"slab" is spelled S-L-A-B. The IPA pronunciation is /slæb/.
What does "slab" mean?
As a noun, "slab" means: A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.
What words are commonly confused with "slab"?
"slab" is commonly confused with "sub", "spa", "sly". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "slab"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "slab" is /slæb/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "slab"?
From Middle English sclabbe, slabbe, of uncertain origin; possibly from *slap, related to dialectal slappel (“portion, piece”), along with slape (“slippery”), sleip (“smooth piece of timber”), borrowed through Old Norse sleipr from Proto-Germanic ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "slab", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Abel#15,314odor#15,234nuns#15,233Ajax#15,323

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

Reich6 variantsReese6 variantsquasi6 variantsmusk6 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list