smile
/ˈsmaɪl/
"smile" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“smile” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,316 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,316
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A facial expression comprised by flexing the muscles of both ends of one's mouth, often showing the front teeth, without vocalisation, and in humans is a common involuntary or voluntary expression ...
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 | smile |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsmaɪl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,316 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “smile” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for smile is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsmaɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,316 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for smile, with forms such as "msile", "simle", and "smiel". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "soil", "sole", "still", 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 smilen (“to smile”), from Middle Low German *smîlen (“to smile”), from Middle High German smielen, from Old High German smielēn, from Proto-West Germanic *smīlēn, from Proto-Germanic *smīlāną (“to smile”), from Proto-Indo-European *smey-… The correct English form is smile, spelled S-M-I-L-E.
Definition
- 1A facial expression comprised by flexing the muscles of both ends of one's mouth, often showing the front teeth, without vocalisation, and in humans is a common involuntary or voluntary expression of happiness, pleasure, amusement, goodwill, or anxiety.
- 2Favour; propitious regard.
- 3A drink bought by one person for another.
Etymology
From Middle English smilen (“to smile”), from Middle Low German *smîlen (“to smile”), from Middle High German smielen, from Old High German smielēn, from Proto-West Germanic *smīlēn, from Proto-Germanic *smīlāną (“to smile”), from Proto-Indo-European *smey- (“to laugh, be glad, wonder”). Cognate with Danish smile, Swedish smila, Faroese smíla (“to smile”); also Saterland Frisian smielje (“to smile”), Low German smielen (“to smile”), Dutch smuilen (“to smile”), Middle High German smielen (“to smile”). Related also to Old High German smierōn (“to smile”), Old English smerian (“to laugh at”), Old English smercian, smearcian ("to smile"; > English smirk), Latin mīror (“to wonder at”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: msile,simle,smiel,smille,smlie,smmile,ssmile
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of smile - 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
How do you spell "smile"?
What does "smile" mean?
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Using “smile”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-M-I-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsmaɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “soil” - see the side-by-side comparison. smile vs soil
- 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.