soy

/sɔɪ/

//sɔɪ// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"soy" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“soy” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #12,504) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#12,504
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A common East Asian liquid sauce, made by subjecting boiled beans to long fermentation and then long digestion in salt and water.

Corpus desk

Index EN-soy · soy · English

soy · rank #12,504 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,504
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH squash

Nearest frequency peer: squash (+2 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 neighbours of confusable “soy”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “soy” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

soy vs SS
0% similar
soy vs SP
0% similar
soy vs su
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for soy
PropertyValue
Headwordsoy
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/sɔɪ/
Letters3
Frequency rank#12,504
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “soy”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).soylands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “squash” (#12,506), “sis” (#12,501), “stacked” (#12,507). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “soy” is #12,504. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for soy is neighbouring look-alikes ("SS", "SP", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /sɔɪ/. Frequency #12,504 among 6,566 “S” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for soy, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "SS", "SP", "su", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Chinese 醬油 /酱油 (jiàngyóu)obor. Japanese 醤油 Japanese そやbor. Dutch sojabor. English soy 1670s; borrowed from Dutch soja, from the Satsuma pronunciation of Japanese 醤油 (soi), variant of the standard Japanese 醤油 (shōyu). Doublet of shoyu, orthogr… The correct English form is soy, spelled S-O-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    A common East Asian liquid sauce, made by subjecting boiled beans to long fermentation and then long digestion in salt and water.
  2. 2
    Soybeans, or the protein derived from them.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how soy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I like a little soy with my rice.
  2. Pour in four tablespoonfuls of sherry and four tablespoonfuls of soy, as much vinegar as the jar will hold, and cover closely until wanted.

Etymology

Etymology tree Chinese 醬油 /酱油 (jiàngyóu)obor. Japanese 醤油 Japanese そやbor. Dutch sojabor. English soy 1670s; borrowed from Dutch soja, from the Satsuma pronunciation of Japanese 醤油 (soi), variant of the standard Japanese 醤油 (shōyu). Doublet of shoyu, orthographic borrowing from Middle Chinese 醬油 (tsjàng-yuw), from 醬 (tsjangᴴ, “bean paste”) + 油 (“oil”).

This word in other languages

soja(Español)soja(Français)Soja(Deutsch)

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "soy"?
"soy" is spelled S-O-Y. The IPA pronunciation is /sɔɪ/.
What does "soy" mean?
As a noun, "soy" means: A common East Asian liquid sauce, made by subjecting boiled beans to long fermentation and then long digestion in salt and water.
What words are commonly confused with "soy"?
"soy" is commonly confused with "SS", "SP", "su". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "soy"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "soy" is /sɔɪ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "soy"?
Etymology tree Chinese 醬油 /酱油 (jiàngyóu)obor. Japanese 醤油 Japanese そやbor. Dutch sojabor. English soy 1670s; borrowed from Dutch soja, from the Satsuma pronunciation of Japanese 醤油 (soi), variant of the standard Japanese 醤油 (shōyu). Doublet of shoy... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "soy", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sis#12,501tar#12,515rum#12,492Abe#12,535

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list