sphere
/sfɪə(ɹ)/
"sphere" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sphere” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,208 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,208
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A surface in three dimensions consisting of all points equidistant from a center. .
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 | sphere |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sfɪə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #8,208 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sphere” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sphere is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sfɪə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,208 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for sphere, with forms such as "pshere", "shpere", and "spehre". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "spree", "spire", "spore", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English spere, from Old French sphere, from Late Latin sphēra, earlier Latin sphaera (“ball, globe, celestial sphere”), from Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “ball, globe”), of unknown origin. Not related to superficially similar Persian سپهر (sep… The correct English form is sphere, spelled S-P-H-E-R-E.
Definition
- 1A surface in three dimensions consisting of all points equidistant from a center. .
- 2An object which appears to be bounded by a sphere; a round object, a ball.
- 3The celestial sphere: the edge of the heavens, imagined as a hollow globe within which celestial bodies appear to be embedded.
- 4Any of the concentric hollow transparent globes formerly believed to rotate around the Earth, and which carried the heavenly bodies; there were originally believed to be eight, and later nine and ten; friction between them was thought to cause a harmonious sound (the music of the spheres).
- 5An area of activity for a planet; or by extension, an area of influence for a god, hero etc.
- 6The region in which something or someone is active; one's province, domain.
- 7The natural, normal, or proper place (of something).
- 8The set of all points in three-dimensional Euclidean space (or n-dimensional space, in topology) that are a fixed distance from a fixed point .
- 9The domain of reference of a proposition, subject, or predicate, or the totality of the particular subjects to which it applies.
Etymology
From Middle English spere, from Old French sphere, from Late Latin sphēra, earlier Latin sphaera (“ball, globe, celestial sphere”), from Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “ball, globe”), of unknown origin. Not related to superficially similar Persian سپهر (sepehr, “sky”) .
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: pshere,shpere,spehre,spheer,spherre,sphhere,sphree,spphere,ssphere
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sphere - 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 "sphere"?
What does "sphere" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sphere"?
How do you pronounce "sphere"?
What is the origin of the word "sphere"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sphere”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-H-E-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sfɪə(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “spree” - see the side-by-side comparison. sphere vs spree
- 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.