sleight
/slaɪt/noun
sleight is spelled S-L-E-I-G-H-T: 7 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,336th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “sleight vs slight” about 90 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, sleight means “Cunning; craft; artful practice” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sleight is sleights.
How many letters and syllables are in sleight?
| Letters | 7: S-L-E-I-G-H-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 39,336th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is sleight?
Sleight appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,336th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sleight?
- /slaɪt/
Sleight has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Words people confuse with sleight
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: slight (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of sleight
- sleights plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sleight mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Cunning; craft; artful practice.
- 2
An artful trick; sly artifice; a feat so dexterous that the manner of performance escapes observation.
- 3
Dexterous practice; dexterity; skill.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sleight in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | List, Gerissenheit, Raffinement, Raffinesse, Täuschung , Trick |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sleight come from?
From Middle English sleighte, sleyght, sleythe, from Old Norse slœgð (“cunning”), from Proto-Germanic *slōgiþō, from *slōgiz (“cunning”) (whence English sly). Doublet of sly and slöjd/sloyd.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).