spillway

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"spillway" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“spillway” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #40,899. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#40,899
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
11
tracked misspellings

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A path designed to take away overflow safely.

Corpus desk

Index EN-spillway · spillway · English

spillway · rank #40,899 · 11 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #40,899
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH spiro

Nearest frequency peer: spiro (+1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “spillway”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “spillway” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for spillway
PropertyValue
Headwordspillway
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#40,899
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “spillway”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).spillwaylands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “spiro” (#40,900), “snarling” (#40,897), “sriracha” (#40,902). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “spillway” is #40,899. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around spillway, anoun. Corpus frequency is #40,899 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A path designed to take away overflow safely.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for spillway, with forms such as "psillway", "sipllway", and "spillawy". 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. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From spill + way. The correct English form is spillway, spelled S-P-I-L-L-W-A-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    A path designed to take away overflow safely.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how spillway appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Absence of filtered undrains beneath spillways or behind walls.
  2. On February 24, 319379 crosses the wrought-iron Carr Mill Viaduct with Northern's 1515 Liverpool Lime Street-Wigan North Western service, viewed from a spillway for the reservoir.

Etymology

From spill + way.

This word in other languages

aliviadero(Español)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • psillway
  • sipllway
  • spillawy
  • spillwayy
  • spillwway
  • spillwya
  • spilway
  • spilwlay
  • splilway
  • sppillway
  • sspillway

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spillway - 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.

psillway2sipllway2spillawy2spillwayy1spillwway1spillwya2spilway1spilwlay2
Edit distance from "spillway"

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 "spillway"?
"spillway" is spelled S-P-I-L-L-W-A-Y.
What does "spillway" mean?
As a noun, "spillway" means: A path designed to take away overflow safely.
What are common misspellings of "spillway"?
Common misspellings include "psillway", "sipllway", "spillawy", "spillwayy", "spillwway". The correct spelling is "spillway".
What is the origin of the word "spillway"?
From spill + way. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "spillway", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

snarling#40,897sriracha#40,902schooler#40,888systolic#40,918

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

Stetson11 variantsrusting11 variantsSwinton11 variantstanking11 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list