speight
/speɪt/
"speight" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“speight” is uncommon English (frequency #56,461 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,461
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A woodpecker.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | speight |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /speɪt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #56,461 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “speight” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
speight is uncommon English at frequency #56,461 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /speɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A woodpecker.".
speight doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From late Northern Middle English specht (“woodpecker”), from Old English *spiht, *speoht, from Proto-West Germanic *spiht, *speht, from Proto-Germanic *spihtaz, *spehtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“a kind of bird, woodpecker, magpie”). Traditiona… The correct English form is speight, spelled S-P-E-I-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1A woodpecker.
Etymology
From late Northern Middle English specht (“woodpecker”), from Old English *spiht, *speoht, from Proto-West Germanic *spiht, *speht, from Proto-Germanic *spihtaz, *spehtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“a kind of bird, woodpecker, magpie”). Traditionally considered to be borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German, but this is rendered problematic by the mention of Spehtesberie in Domesday (Middle English Speghtesbury, Spettesbury; modern Spettisbury). Compare Dutch specht (“woodpecker”), German Specht (“woodpecker”), Danish spætte (“woodpecker”), Latin pīcus (“woodpecker”).
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
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Using “speight”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-E-I-G-H-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /speɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.