sleuthing
"sleuthing" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sleuthing” is uncommon English (frequency #67,052 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #67,052
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Detective work.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sleuthing · sleuthing · English
sleuthing · rank #67,052 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #67,052
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH sleeplessness
Nearest frequency peer: sleeplessness (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “sleuthing”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- simp
simp
32,952 corpus weight
- sleeplessne…
sleeplessness
32,950 corpus weight
- sleuthing
sleuthing
32,949 corpus weight
- slumdog
slumdog
32,948 corpus weight
- smote
smote
32,947 corpus weight
- sockeye
sockeye
32,946 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sleuthing” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sleuthing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #67,052 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sleuthing” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sleuthing is uncommon English at frequency #67,052 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Detective work.".
sleuthing doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is sleuthing, spelled S-L-E-U-T-H-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Detective work.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sleuthing appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“Wotcher, me old cock sparrow, how's the sleuthing business?” bellowed Sandy, pausing and balancing his saddle on one knee while he looped up the girth.
Keane's speeches have not reduced the number of Amerasian births, but a decade of sleuthing has helped nearly 600 Amerasian orphans find new homes in the United States.
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 "sleuthing", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).