slate
/sleɪt/
"slate" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“slate” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,397 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,397
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A flake or piece of certain types of stone that tend to cleave into thin layers.
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 | slate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sleɪt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #9,397 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “slate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for slate is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sleɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,397 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for slate, with forms such as "lsate", "salte", and "slaet". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "SLE", "slot", "stat", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English sclate, slat, slate (“type of rock; roofing slate; writing slate”), from Old French esclate, a feminine form of esclat (“broken piece, shard”) (modern French éclat), from Old French esclater (“to break, shatter”), fro… The correct English form is slate, spelled S-L-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1A flake or piece of certain types of stone that tend to cleave into thin layers.
- 2A flake or piece of certain types of stone that tend to cleave into thin layers.
- 3A generally rectangular piece, originally of certain types of stone and now of other materials, often in a frame, used for writing on with a thin rod of the same or another stone (a slate pencil) or with chalk; a small chalkboard.
- 4Synonym of tablet computer (“a hand-held portable computer in the form of a tablet with a touch screen interface”).
- 5Synonym of clapperboard (“a device consisting of a board on which information about a film being recorded is noted, and a hinged piece which is brought down on the board with a clap at the start and end of each take of the film; it is used to synchronize picture and sound during editing”).
- 6Synonym of clapperboard (“a device consisting of a board on which information about a film being recorded is noted, and a hinged piece which is brought down on the board with a clap at the start and end of each take of the film; it is used to synchronize picture and sound during editing”).
- 7A record, for example, of money owed.
- 8A range of things; also, a schedule.
- 9A collection of films released during a certain period, either from one studio or from a certain film industry (such as Hollywood) as a whole.
- 10A group or list of candidates for appointment or election to an office; also, a group of candidates or electors with affiliated political views.
- 11A fine-grained homogeneous sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash which has been metamorphosed so that it cleaves easily into thin layers.
- 12A fine-grained homogeneous sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash which has been metamorphosed so that it cleaves easily into thin layers.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English sclate, slat, slate (“type of rock; roofing slate; writing slate”), from Old French esclate, a feminine form of esclat (“broken piece, shard”) (modern French éclat), from Old French esclater (“to break, shatter”), from Frankish *slaitijan (“to split, break”), from Proto-Germanic *slaitijaną, the causative of *slītaną (“to cut up, split”); further etymology unknown (see the Proto-Germanic entry for a discussion). Doublet of éclat and slat. The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lsate,salte,slaet,slatte,sllate,sltae,sslate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of slate - 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.
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 “slate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-L-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sleɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “SLE” - see the side-by-side comparison. slate vs SLE
- 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.