spinster
/ˈspɪnstə/
"spinster" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spinster” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #42,416 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #42,416
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A woman who has never been married, especially one past the typical marrying age according to social traditions.
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 | spinster |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈspɪnstə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #42,416 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “spinster” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for spinster is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈspɪnstə/. Corpus data places it at rank #42,416 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for spinster, with forms such as "psinster", "sipnster", and "spinnster". 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. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "splinter", "sprinter", "sister", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English spynnestere (“woman who spins fibre”), from c. 1350; equivalent to spin + -ster. The semantic development is from a historical notion of unmarried women spinning thread for a living. The correct English form is spinster, spelled S-P-I-N-S-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1A woman who has never been married, especially one past the typical marrying age according to social traditions.
- 2One who spins (puts a spin on) a political media story so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance; a spin doctor, spin merchant or spinmeister.
- 3Someone whose occupation was spinning thread.
- 4A woman of evil life and character; so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction.
- 5A spider; an insect (such as a silkworm) which spins thread.
Etymology
From Middle English spynnestere (“woman who spins fibre”), from c. 1350; equivalent to spin + -ster. The semantic development is from a historical notion of unmarried women spinning thread for a living.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: psinster,sipnster,spinnster,spinsetr,spinsster,spinsterr,spinstre,spinstter,spintser,spisnter,spnister,sppinster,sspinster
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spinster - 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
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Using “spinster”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-I-N-S-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈspɪnstə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “splinter” - see the side-by-side comparison. spinster vs splinter
- 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.