sniffling
"sniffling" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sniffling” is uncommon English (frequency #71,932 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,932
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sniffle sound or action.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sniffling · sniffling · English
sniffling · rank #71,932 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,932
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 54,294
- PHOTO-FINISH sneed
Nearest frequency peer: sneed (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “sniffling”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- smarmy
smarmy
28,073 corpus weight
- smutty
smutty
28,071 corpus weight
- sneed
sneed
28,070 corpus weight
- sniffling
sniffling
28,069 corpus weight
- Sobotka
Sobotka
28,068 corpus weight
- speedos
speedos
28,067 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sniffling” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sniffling |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #71,932 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sniffling” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sniffling is uncommon English at frequency #71,932 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A sniffle sound or action.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for sniffling, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is sniffling, spelled S-N-I-F-F-L-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1A sniffle sound or action.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sniffling appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We heard snifflings and a cough from behind the hedge.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sniffling", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.