sofer
/soʊˈfɛɹ/
"sofer" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sofer” is uncommon English (frequency #98,735 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,735
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A Jewish scribe who can transcribe Torah scrolls and other religious writings.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sofer · sofer · English
sofer · rank #98,735 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #98,735
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH snoke
Nearest frequency peer: snoke (-3 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 “sofer”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- smithing
smithing
1,270 corpus weight
- snoke
snoke
1,269 corpus weight
- sofer
sofer
1,266 corpus weight
- Soja
Soja
1,263 corpus weight
- Sokal
Sokal
1,262 corpus weight
- Soloway
Soloway
1,261 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sofer” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sofer |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /soʊˈfɛɹ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #98,735 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sofer” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sofer is uncommon English at frequency #98,735 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /soʊˈfɛɹ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A Jewish scribe who can transcribe Torah scrolls and other religious writings.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sofer, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Hebrew סופר (sofér). The correct English form is sofer, spelled S-O-F-E-R.
Definition
- 1A Jewish scribe who can transcribe Torah scrolls and other religious writings.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sofer appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Twice in seven years it must be examined by a sofer (a religious scribe) to assure its legitimacy.
Etymology
Borrowed from Hebrew סופר (sofér).
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 September 3, 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 "sofer", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #98,735 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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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.