slough
/slʌf/
"slough" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“slough” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #26,965. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #26,965
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
Corpus desk
Index EN-slough · slough · English
slough · rank #26,965 · 9 variants · 9 confusables
- FREQ-MID #26,965
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH skirmish
Nearest frequency peer: skirmish (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “slough”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- sie
sie
73,039 corpus weight
- signup
signup
73,038 corpus weight
- skirmish
skirmish
73,037 corpus weight
- slough
slough
73,036 corpus weight
- soared
soared
73,034 corpus weight
- solicit
solicit
73,033 corpus weight
What this shows “slough” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | slough |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /slʌf/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #26,965 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “slough”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around slough (IPA /slʌf/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #26,965 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for slough, with forms such as "lsough", "sllough", and "sloguh". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "slug", "south", "slush", 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 slogh, slugh, slouh, from Proto-Germanic *sluk-, perhaps related to *sleupaną (“to slip, sneak”) (compare Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽 (sliupan)). Akin to Middle Low German slô (“sheath, skin on a hoof”). Perhaps also related with Old Saxon slū… The correct English form is slough, spelled S-L-O-U-G-H.
Definition
- 1The skin shed by a snake or other reptile.
- 2Dead skin on a sore or ulcer.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how slough appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
That is the slough of a rattler; we must be careful.
And without more ado she stood up and shook the white wrappings from her, and came forth shining and splendid like some glittering snake when she has cast her slough; ay, and fixed her wonderful eyes upon me - more deadly than any Basilisk's - and pierced me through and through with their beauty, and sent her light laugh ringing through the air like chime…
Etymology
From Middle English slogh, slugh, slouh, from Proto-Germanic *sluk-, perhaps related to *sleupaną (“to slip, sneak”) (compare Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽 (sliupan)). Akin to Middle Low German slô (“sheath, skin on a hoof”). Perhaps also related with Old Saxon slūk (“snakeskin”), Middle High German slūch, whence German Schlauch (“waterskin, hose”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- lsough
- sllough
- sloguh
- slouggh
- sloughh
- slouhg
- sluogh
- solugh
- sslough
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of slough - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "slough", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).