soil
/sɔɪl/
"soil" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“soil” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #3,527. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #3,527
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth.
Corpus desk
Index EN-soil · soil · English
soil · rank #3,527 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #3,527
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH skill
Nearest frequency peer: skill (-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 “soil”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- references
references
96,477 corpus weight
- sexy
sexy
96,476 corpus weight
- skill
skill
96,475 corpus weight
- soil
soil
96,474 corpus weight
- solve
solve
96,473 corpus weight
- stomach
stomach
96,472 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “soil” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | soil |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɔɪl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #3,527 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “soil” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around soil (IPA /sɔɪl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #3,527 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for soil, with forms such as "osil", "siol", and "soill". 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, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 En… The correct English form is soil, spelled S-O-I-L.
Definition
- 1A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth.
- 2The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.
- 3The 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, chemical, biological, and morphological properties and characteristics.
- 4Country or territory.
- 5That which soils or pollutes; a stain.
- 6A 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.
- 7Dung; compost; manure.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how soil appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We bought a bag of soil for the houseplants.
Except during the season in town, she spends her year in golfing, either at St Magnus or Pau, for, like all good Americans, she has long since abjured her native soil.
Etymology
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”). Compare French seuil (“level; threshold”) and sol (“soil, earth; ground”). See also sole, soal, solum. For the sole and soil relation, compare typologically Russian по́чва (póčva) akin to подо́шва (podóšva).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- osil
- siol
- soill
- soli
- ssoil
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of soil - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "soil", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "soil". Here's where to go from here.
- "soil" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "son". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #3,527 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.