sleeve
/sliːv/
"sleeve" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sleeve” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,979 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,979
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The part of a garment that covers the arm.
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 | sleeve |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sliːv/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #7,979 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sleeve” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sleeve is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sliːv/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,979 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for sleeve, with forms such as "lseeve", "seleve", and "sleeev". 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 17 confusable-pair relationships, "Steve", "Steele", "sneeze", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sleve, slefe, from Old English slīef and slīefe (“sleeve”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Sleeuwe (“sleeve”), West Frisian slúf, Dutch sloof (“apron”), Low German sluve, dialectal German Schlaube. The Canadian sense of “measure smaller … The correct English form is sleeve, spelled S-L-E-E-V-E.
Definition
- 1The part of a garment that covers the arm.
- 2A (usually tubular) covering or lining to protect a piece of machinery etc.
- 3A protective jacket or case, especially for a record, containing art and information about the contents; also the analogous leaflet found in a packaged CD.
- 4A tattoo covering the whole arm.
- 5A narrow channel of water.
- 6Sleave; untwisted thread.
- 7A serving of beer smaller than a pint, typically measuring between 12 and 16 ounces.
- 8A long, cylindrical plastic bag of cookies or crackers, or a similar package of disposable drinking cups.
- 9A double tube of copper into which the ends of bare wires are pushed so that when the tube is twisted an electrical connection is made. The joint thus made is called a McIntire joint.
Etymology
From Middle English sleve, slefe, from Old English slīef and slīefe (“sleeve”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Sleeuwe (“sleeve”), West Frisian slúf, Dutch sloof (“apron”), Low German sluve, dialectal German Schlaube. The Canadian sense of “measure smaller than a pint” is due to a former conflict between federal law and provincial law in British Columbia. According to federal law, a pint must be 20 imperial ounces (~568 ml), but according to provincial law at the time, the maximum individual serving size was 500 ml, so an individual portion could not be called a “pint” in British Columbia, and required a different term. The provincial law has been changed, allowing servings of up to 24 oz (~682 ml), but the term remains in use. The term sleeve itself for a cylindrical glass of beer is also found in the UK and Australia (as sleever), and may be due to stacked glasses resembling a sleeve.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lseeve,seleve,sleeev,sleevve,sleve,slevee,slleeve,ssleeve
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sleeve - 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sleeve"?
What does "sleeve" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sleeve"?
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Using “sleeve”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-L-E-E-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sliːv/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Steve” - see the side-by-side comparison. sleeve vs Steve
- 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.