slut
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "slut", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "slut" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "slut" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
slut is aEnglishnoun. It means: A sexually promiscuous woman. Pronounced /slʌt/. Often confused with su and sun.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | slut |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /slʌt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #10,278 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for slut is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /slʌt/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,278 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for slut, with forms such as "lsut", "sllut", and "sltu". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "su", "sun", "sub", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English slutt, slutte, slute (“a dirty or slovenly person, usually a woman, scullery maid; messy animal to prepare as food; slush, mud”), probably from Old English *slȳte (“sleet”), from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slauti… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is slut, spelled S-L-U-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A sexually promiscuous woman.
- 2A sexually promiscuous woman.
- 3Any sexually promiscuous person.
- 4Someone who seeks attention through inappropriate means or to an excessive degree.
- 5A disloyal individual; someone who does not commit to a particular thing.
- 6A slovenly, untidy person, usually a woman.
- 7A bold, outspoken woman.
- 8A female dog.
- 9A maidservant.
- 10A rag soaked in a flammable substance and lit for illumination.
Etymology
From Middle English slutt, slutte, slute (“a dirty or slovenly person, usually a woman, scullery maid; messy animal to prepare as food; slush, mud”), probably from Old English *slȳte (“sleet”), from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet, hail”), related to Proto-West Germanic *slaut (“puddle, ditch”). Compare Dutch slodder and slet, dialectal Swedish slata (“idle woman”), Norwegian sludd (“sleet”), and the dialectal Norwegian slutr (“sleet, impure liquid”). Doublet of sleet.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lsut,sllut,sltu,slutt,sslut,sult
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for slut
Misspelling Variants of "slut"
Frequency rank: #10,278 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: