snob
/snɒb/
"snob" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“snob” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #30,592 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #30,592
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person who wishes to be seen as a member of the upper classes and who looks down on those perceived to have inferior or unrefined tastes.
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 | snob |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /snɒb/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #30,592 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “snob” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for snob is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /snɒb/. Corpus data places it at rank #30,592 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for snob, with forms such as "nsob", "snbo", and "snnob". 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, "so", "son", "sub", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Late 18th century dialectal English snob (“cobbler”), of unknown origin. Early senses of the word carried the meaning of "lower status"; it was then used to describe those seeking to imitate those of higher wealth or status. Folk etymology derives it from t… The correct English form is snob, spelled S-N-O-B.
Definition
- 1A person who wishes to be seen as a member of the upper classes and who looks down on those perceived to have inferior or unrefined tastes.
- 2A cobbler or shoemaker.
- 3A member of the lower classes; a commoner.
- 4A workman who works for lower wages than his fellows, especially one who will not join a strike (a scab).
- 5A townsman, as opposed to a gownsman.
Etymology
Late 18th century dialectal English snob (“cobbler”), of unknown origin. Early senses of the word carried the meaning of "lower status"; it was then used to describe those seeking to imitate those of higher wealth or status. Folk etymology derives it from the Latin phrase sine nobilitate (“without nobility”), but early uses had no connection to this. The modern sense was popularized by William Makepeace Thackeray in The Book of Snobs (1848).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: nsob,snbo,snnob,snobb,sonb,ssnob
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of snob - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Using “snob”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-N-O-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /snɒb/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “so” - see the side-by-side comparison. snob vs so
- 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.