sock
/sɒk/
"sock" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sock” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,864 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,864
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A knitted or woven covering for the foot.
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 | sock |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɒk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #12,864 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sock” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sock is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɒk/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,864 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 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 sock, with forms such as "osck", "scok", and "socck". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "son", "sox", "sol", 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 socke, sokke, sok, from Old English socc (“sock, light shoe, slipper”), a West Germanic borrowing from Latin soccus (“a light shoe or slipper, buskin”), from Ancient Greek σύκχος (súkkhos, “a kind of shoe”), probably from Phrygian or fro… The correct English form is sock, spelled S-O-C-K.
Definition
- 1A knitted or woven covering for the foot.
- 2Synonym of soccus, a light shoe worn by Ancient Greek and Roman comedic actors.
- 3The lower leg of an animal (of an animal) that is a different color (usually white) from the color pattern on the rest of the animal.
- 4A sleeve for a microphone to reduce noise.
- 5Ellipsis of gun sock.
- 6Ellipsis of sock puppet.
- 7Ellipsis of windsock.
Etymology
From Middle English socke, sokke, sok, from Old English socc (“sock, light shoe, slipper”), a West Germanic borrowing from Latin soccus (“a light shoe or slipper, buskin”), from Ancient Greek σύκχος (súkkhos, “a kind of shoe”), probably from Phrygian or from an Anatolian language. Beekes compares Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬑𐬀 (haxa, “sole of the foot”). Cognate with Scots sok (“sock, stocking”), West Frisian sok (“sock”), Dutch sok (“sock”), German Socke (“sock”), Danish sok, sokke (“sock”), Swedish sock, socka (“sock”), Icelandic sokkur (“sock”). Doublet of zocco; also related to zoccolo, socle, and zocalo.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: osck,scok,socck,sockk,sokc,ssock
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sock - 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 “sock”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-O-C-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɒk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “son” - see the side-by-side comparison. sock vs son
- 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.