sponge
/spʌnd͡ʒ/
"sponge" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sponge” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,246 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,246
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 14
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various marine invertebrates of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica.
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 | sponge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /spʌnd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #13,246 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sponge” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sponge is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /spʌnd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,246 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 15 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 sponge, with forms such as "psonge", "sopnge", and "spnoge". 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 14 confusable-pair relationships, "stone", "spore", "spouse", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sponge, from Old English spunge, taken from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek σπογγιά (spongiá), from σπόγγος (spóngos). The correct English form is sponge, spelled S-P-O-N-G-E.
Definition
- 1Any of various marine invertebrates of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica.
- 2A piece of porous material used for washing (originally made from the invertebrates, now often made of plastic).
- 3The porous material that synthetic washing sponges are made of.
- 4A heavy drinker.
- 5A type of light cake.
- 6A type of steamed pudding.
- 7A person who takes advantage of the generosity of others (abstractly imagined to absorb or soak up the money or efforts of others like a sponge).
- 8A person who readily absorbs ideas.
- 9A form of contraception that is inserted vaginally; a contraceptive sponge.
- 10Any sponge-like substance.
- 11Any sponge-like substance.
- 12Any sponge-like substance.
- 13A mop for cleaning the bore of a cannon after a discharge. It consists of a cylinder of wood, covered with sheepskin with the wool on, or cloth with a heavy looped nap, and having a handle, or staff.
- 14The extremity, or point, of a horseshoe, corresponding to the heel.
- 15A nuclear power plant worker routinely exposed to radiation.
Etymology
From Middle English sponge, from Old English spunge, taken from Latin spongia, from Ancient Greek σπογγιά (spongiá), from σπόγγος (spóngos).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: psonge,sopnge,spnoge,spogne,sponeg,spongge,sponnge,spponge,ssponge
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sponge - 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.
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 "sponge"?
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Using “sponge”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-O-N-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /spʌnd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “stone” - see the side-by-side comparison. sponge vs stone
- 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.