sleep
/sliːp/
"sleep" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sleep” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #957. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #957
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - To rest in a state of reduced consciousness.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sleep · sleep · English
sleep · rank #957 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #957
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH schools
Nearest frequency peer: schools (-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 “sleep”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- released
released
99,047 corpus weight
- risk
risk
99,046 corpus weight
- schools
schools
99,045 corpus weight
- sleep
sleep
99,044 corpus weight
- table
table
99,043 corpus weight
- ten
ten
99,042 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sleep” 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 | sleep |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /sliːp/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #957 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sleep” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around sleep (IPA /sliːp/), averb. Corpus frequency is #957 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for sleep, with forms such as "lseep", "selep", and "sleepp". 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, "slip", "slew", "slop", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English slepen, from Anglian Old English slēpan (West Saxon Old English slǣpan), from Proto-West Germanic *slāpan, from Proto-Germanic *slēpaną (“to sleep”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian sleepe, sliap, sliip, släipe (“to sleep”), Saterlan… The correct English form is sleep, spelled S-L-E-E-P.
Definition
- 1To rest in a state of reduced consciousness.
- 2To have sexual intercourse (see sleep with).
- 3To accommodate in beds.
- 4To be careless, inattentive, or unconcerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.
- 5To be dead.
- 6To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant.
- 7To wait for a period of time without performing any action.
- 8To place into a state of hibernation.
- 9To spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
- 10To cause (a spinning top or yo-yo) to spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sleep appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
You should sleep eight hours a day.
We sleep in the bedroom.
Etymology
From Middle English slepen, from Anglian Old English slēpan (West Saxon Old English slǣpan), from Proto-West Germanic *slāpan, from Proto-Germanic *slēpaną (“to sleep”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian sleepe, sliap, sliip, släipe (“to sleep”), Saterland Frisian släipe (“to sleep”), West Frisian sliepe (“to sleep”), Alemannic German schlaaffe, schlaafä, schlafe, schloafe, schloafen, schlofe, schlàfu (“to sleep”), Bavarian schlofn, schlåfn, sghlofn (“to sleep”), Central Franconian schlofe (“to sleep”), Cimbrian slaafan, slafan, slavan (“to sleep”), Dutch and Low German slapen (“to sleep”), German schlafen (“to sleep”), Limburgish schloëpe, slaope (“to sleep”), Luxembourgish schlofen (“to sleep”), Mòcheno schloven (“to sleep”), Vilamovian šłȫfa, śłöfa (“to sleep”), Yiddish שלאָפֿן (shlofn, “to sleep”), Crimean Gothic schlipen (“to sleep”), Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌴𐍀𐌰𐌽 (slēpan, “to sleep”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- lseep
- selep
- sleepp
- slep
- slepe
- slleep
- ssleep
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sleep - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sleep", 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 (7 here; floor ≥5).
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.