speechless
/ˈspiːt͡ʃ.lɪs/
"speechless" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“speechless” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #20,783 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #20,783
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Not speaking; not knowing what to say; silent, especially due to surprise, amazement, etc.; wordless.
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 | speechless |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈspiːt͡ʃ.lɪs/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #20,783 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “speechless” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for speechless is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈspiːt͡ʃ.lɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #20,783 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for speechless, with forms such as "pseechless", "sepechless", and "specehless". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "speeches", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English specheles, from Old English sprǣċlēas (“speechless; without the power of speak”), from Proto-Germanic *sprēkalausaz, equivalent to speech + -less. Cognate with West Frisian sprakeleas (“speechless”), Dutch sprakeloos (“speechless”), Germ… The correct English form is speechless, spelled S-P-E-E-C-H-L-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Not speaking; not knowing what to say; silent, especially due to surprise, amazement, etc.; wordless.
- 2Synonym of unspeakable.
Etymology
From Middle English specheles, from Old English sprǣċlēas (“speechless; without the power of speak”), from Proto-Germanic *sprēkalausaz, equivalent to speech + -less. Cognate with West Frisian sprakeleas (“speechless”), Dutch sprakeloos (“speechless”), German Low German spraaklos (“speechless”), German sprachlos (“speechless”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: pseechless,sepechless,specehless,spechless,speecchless,speechelss,speechhless,speechles,speechlless,speechlses,speeclhess,speehcless,sppeechless,sspeechless
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of speechless - 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "speechless"?
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Using “speechless”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-E-E-C-H-L-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈspiːt͡ʃ.lɪs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “speeches” - see the side-by-side comparison. speechless vs speeches
- 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.