spew
/spjuː/
"spew" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spew” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #33,028 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #33,028
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To eject forcibly and in a stream,
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 | spew |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /spjuː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #33,028 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “spew” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for spew is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /spjuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #33,028 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for spew, with forms such as "psew", "sepw", and "speww". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "SW", "spy", "sue", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English spewen, from Old English spīwan, from Proto-West Germanic *spīwan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ptyēw- (“to spit, vomit”). Germanic cognates include English spit, West Frisian spije, Dutch spuien, Dutch spuw… The correct English form is spew, spelled S-P-E-W.
Definition
- 1To eject forcibly and in a stream,
- 2To be forcibly ejected.
- 3To speak or write quickly and voluminously, especially words that are not worth listening to or reading.
- 4To be written or spoken voluminously.
- 5To vomit.
- 6To ejaculate.
- 7To develop a white powder or dark crystals on the surface of finished leather, as a result from improper tanning.
Etymology
From Middle English spewen, from Old English spīwan, from Proto-West Germanic *spīwan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ptyēw- (“to spit, vomit”). Germanic cognates include English spit, West Frisian spije, Dutch spuien, Dutch spuwen, Low German speen, spiien, German speien (“to spew, spit, vomit”), Swedish spy, Danish spy, Faroese spýggja, Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌴𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌽 (speiwan). Also cognate, through Indo-European, with Latin spuō (“spit”, verb), Ancient Greek πτύω (ptúō, “spit, vomit”), Albanian fyt (“throat”), Armenian թուք (tʻukʻ), Russian плева́ть (plevátʹ), Persian تف (tof), Sanskrit ष्ठीवति (ṣṭhī́vati).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: psew,sepw,speww,sppew,spwe,sspew
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spew - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "spew"?
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Using “spew”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-E-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /spjuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “SW” - see the side-by-side comparison. spew vs SW
- 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.