spiky
/ˈspaɪki/
"spiky" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spiky” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #39,582 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #39,582
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”).
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 | spiky |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈspaɪki/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #39,582 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “spiky” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for spiky is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈspaɪki/. Corpus data places it at rank #39,582 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 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for spiky, with forms such as "psiky", "sipky", and "spikky". 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, "spy", "spin", "spit", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From spike (“kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense “having the quality of”). Spike is derived from Middle English spik, spike (“ear of grain; clove of gar… The correct English form is spiky, spelled S-P-I-K-Y.
Definition
- 1Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”).
- 2Of a plant part: resembling a spike of a plant (see above).
Etymology
From spike (“kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense “having the quality of”). Spike is derived from Middle English spik, spike (“ear of grain; clove of garlic; plant having spikes; plant of the genus Valeriana, especially Valeriana officinalis; plant of the genus Lavandula, lavender”), from Latin spīca (“ear, head, or spike of grain; plant spike”) (feminine) (also rarely spīcum (neuter) and spīcus (masculine)), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“long; sharp; thin”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: psiky,sipky,spikky,spikyy,spiyk,spkiy,sppiky,sspiky
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spiky - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “spiky”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-I-K-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈspaɪki/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “spy” - see the side-by-side comparison. spiky vs spy
- 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.