Sophie's choice
"sophie-s-choice" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Sophie's choice” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A choice where every alternative has significant negative consequences.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Sophie's choice |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Sophie's choice” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Sophie's choice is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A choice where every alternative has significant negative consequences.".
Sophie's choice doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the title of the book Sophie's Choice (1979), by William Styron, in which a mother is forced to decide which of her children will die. The correct English form is Sophie's choice, spelled S-O-P-H-I-E-'-S- -C-H-O-I-C-E.
Definition
- 1A choice where every alternative has significant negative consequences.
Etymology
From the title of the book Sophie's Choice (1979), by William Styron, in which a mother is forced to decide which of her children will die.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Sophie's choice”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-O-P-H-I-E-'-S- -C-H-O-I-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.