son-in-law
/ˈsʌnɪnˌlɔː/
"son-in-law" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“son-in-law” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The husband of one's child.
Corpus desk
Index EN-son-in-law · son-in-law · English
son-in-law · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | son-in-law |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsʌnɪnˌlɔː/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “son-in-law” in English
Rare enough to double-check
son-in-law is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsʌnɪnˌlɔː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The husband of one's child.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for son-in-law in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sone in lawe; equivalent to son + -in-law. The correct English form is son-in-law, spelled S-O-N---I-N---L-A-W.
Definition
- 1The husband of one's child.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how son-in-law appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
12 ¶ And the men said vnto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? sonne in law, and thy sonnes, and thy daughters, and whatsoeuer thou hast in the citie, bring them out of this place. 13 For we will destroy this place, because the crie of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD: and the LORD hath sent vs to destroy it. 14 And Lot went out, and spake vnt…
Etymology
From Middle English sone in lawe; equivalent to son + -in-law.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.