slava
/ˈslɑːvə/
"slava" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“slava” is uncommon English (frequency #66,300 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,300
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The custom of honoring a family patron saint, celebrated chiefly by the Serbs, but also by some Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bulgarians and Gorani.
Corpus desk
Index EN-slava · slava · English
slava · rank #66,300 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #66,300
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Skegness
Nearest frequency peer: Skegness (-2 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 “slava”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Sisyphus
Sisyphus
33,706 corpus weight
- Skegness
Skegness
33,703 corpus weight
- slava
slava
33,701 corpus weight
- smugness
smugness
33,699 corpus weight
- sorel
sorel
33,698 corpus weight
- spectrograph
spectrograph
33,697 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “slava” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | slava |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈslɑːvə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #66,300 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “slava” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
slava is uncommon English at frequency #66,300 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈslɑːvə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The custom of honoring a family patron saint, celebrated chiefly by the Serbs, but also by some Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bulgarians and Gorani.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for slava, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From South Slavic slava / слава (slava), literally "fame, honour". The word is also used in some Slavic languages to wish blessings to another person. The correct English form is slava, spelled S-L-A-V-A.
Definition
- 1The custom of honoring a family patron saint, celebrated chiefly by the Serbs, but also by some Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bulgarians and Gorani.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how slava appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1942: I was also enchanted at the opportunity of seeing a Slava (the word means ‘Holy’), which is the distinctive social custom of the Serbs. — Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (Canongate 2006, p. 753)
Etymology
From South Slavic slava / слава (slava), literally "fame, honour". The word is also used in some Slavic languages to wish blessings to another person.
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 "slava", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "slava". Here's where to go from here.
- Usage frequency rank #66,300 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.