soil
/sɔɪl/noun, verb
soil is spelled S-O-I-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,479th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, soil means “A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of soil is soils.
How many letters and syllables are in soil?
| Letters | 4: S-O-I-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 26 times per million words; the 3,479th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is soil?
Soil appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,479th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce soil?
- /sɔɪl/
- [sɔɪ̯ɫ]
- /sɔɪ.əl/
Soil has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-soil.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with soil?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as soil.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: silo, siol.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of soil
- soils plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- soiling participle, present
- soiled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does soil mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth.
We bought a bag of soil for the houseplants.
- 2
The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.
- 3
The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on the surface of the earth that has been subjected to and shows effects of genetic and environmental factors of: climate (including water and temperature effects), and macro- and microorganisms, conditioned by relief, acting on parent material over a period of time. A product-soil differs from the material from which it is derived in many physical, che
- 4
Country or territory.
- 5
That which soils or pollutes; a stain.
- 6
A marshy or miry place to which a hunted boar resorts for refuge; hence, a wet place, stream, or tract of water, sought for by other game, as deer.
- 7
Dung; compost; manure.
night soil
- 8
A food preparation with the texture and often color of soil.
- 9
Faeces or urine etc. when found on clothes.
- 10
A bag containing soiled items.
- 11
A wet or marshy place in which a boar or other such game seeks refuge when hunted.
verb
- 1
To make dirty.
- 2
To become dirty or soiled.
Light colours soil sooner than dark ones.
- 3
To stain or mar, as with infamy or disgrace; to tarnish; to sully.
- 4
To dirty one's clothing by accidentally defecating while clothed.
The child was so scared she soiled herself.
- 5
To make invalid, to ruin.
- 6
To enrich with soil or muck; to manure.
- 7
To feed, as cattle or horses, in the barn or an enclosure, with fresh grass or green food cut for them, instead of sending them out to pasture; hence (due to such food having the effect of purging them) to purge by feeding on green food.
to soil a horse
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Soil in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sol, terre , salir, souiller , souillure |
| German | Erde, Grund , verschmutzen , Boden , Grund und Boden, Territorium |
| Portuguese | solo , sujar , terra , arruinar, estragar |
| Spanish | suelo, tierra, mantillo, humus , enlodar, enlodazar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does soil come from?
From Middle English soile, soyle, sule (“ground, earth”), partly from Anglo-Norman soyl (“bottom, ground, pavement”), from Latin solium (“seat, chair; throne”), mistaken for Latin solum (“ground, foundation, earth, sole of the foot”); and partly from Old English sol (“mud, mire, wet sand”), from Proto-Germanic *sulą (“mud, spot”), from Proto-Indo-European *sūl- (“thick liquid”). Cognate with Middle Low German söle (“dirt, mud”), Middle Dutch sol (“dirt, filth”), Middle High German sol, söl (“dirt, mud, mire”), Danish søle (“mud, muck”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).