smoothing

noun

"smoothing" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“smoothing” has 14 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #27,645. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#27,645
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
14
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act by which something is made smooth.

Corpus desk

Index EN-smoothing · smoothing · English

smoothing · rank #27,645 · 14 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #27,645
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 14 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH smirk

Nearest frequency peer: smirk (-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 “smoothing”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “smoothing” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

smoothing vs soothing
89% similar
smoothing vs shooting
78% similar
smoothing vs smoothie
78% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for smoothing
PropertyValue
Headwordsmoothing
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#27,645
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “smoothing”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).smoothinglands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “smirk” (#27,644), “Smyth” (#27,646), “snipe” (#27,648). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “smoothing” is #27,645. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 14 spelling variants around smoothing, anoun. Corpus frequency is #27,645 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for smoothing, with forms such as "msoothing", "smmoothing", and "smoohting". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "soothing", "shooting", "smoothie", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is smoothing, spelled S-M-O-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act by which something is made smooth.
  2. 2
    Monophthongization.
  3. 3
    creation of an approximating function that attempts to capture important patterns in the data, while leaving out noise or other fine-scale structures/rapid phenomena.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how smoothing appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. For, as I draw closer and closer to the end, I travel in the circle, nearer and nearer to the beginning. It seems to be one of the kind smoothings and preparings of the way.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • msoothing
  • smmoothing
  • smoohting
  • smoothhing
  • smoothign
  • smoothingg
  • smoothinng
  • smoothnig
  • smootihng
  • smootthing
  • smothing
  • smotohing
  • somothing
  • ssmoothing

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of smoothing - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

msoothing2smmoothing1smoohting2smoothhing1smoothign2smoothingg1smoothinng1smoothnig2
Edit distance from "smoothing"

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 "smoothing"?
"smoothing" is spelled S-M-O-O-T-H-I-N-G.
What does "smoothing" mean?
As a noun, "smoothing" means: The act by which something is made smooth.
What words are commonly confused with "smoothing"?
"smoothing" is commonly confused with "soothing", "shooting", "smoothie". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "smoothing" come from?
"smoothing" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "smoothing", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list