spoon
/spuːn/
"spoon" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spoon” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #8,611. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #8,611
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An implement for eating or serving; a scooped utensil whose long handle is straight, in contrast to a ladle.
Corpus desk
Index EN-spoon · spoon · English
spoon · rank #8,611 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #8,611
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH sour
Nearest frequency peer: sour (-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 “spoon”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- socialism
socialism
91,393 corpus weight
- sour
sour
91,391 corpus weight
- spoon
spoon
91,390 corpus weight
- stressful
stressful
91,389 corpus weight
- stretched
stretched
91,388 corpus weight
- sucking
sucking
91,387 corpus weight
What this shows “spoon” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | spoon |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /spuːn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #8,611 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “spoon”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around spoon (IPA /spuːn/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #8,611 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 11 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for spoon, with forms such as "psoon", "sopon", and "spon". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "spot", "spun", "sport", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English spoon, spoune, spone, spon (“spoon, chip of wood”), from Old English spōn (“sliver, chip of wood, shaving”), from Proto-West Germanic *spānu, from Proto-Germanic *spēnuz (“chip, flake, shaving”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peH- (“chip,… The correct English form is spoon, spelled S-P-O-O-N.
Definition
- 1An implement for eating or serving; a scooped utensil whose long handle is straight, in contrast to a ladle.
- 2An implement for stirring food while being prepared; a wooden spoon.
- 3A measure that will fit into a spoon; a spoonful.
- 4A wooden-headed golf club with moderate loft, similar to the modern fairway wood.
- 5An oar.
- 6A type of metal lure resembling the concave head of a tablespoon.
- 7A spoon excavator.
- 8A South African shrub of the genus Spatalla.
- 9A simpleton, a spoony.
- 10A safety handle on a hand grenade, a trigger.
- 11A metaphoric unit of finite physical and mental energy available for daily activities, especially in the context of living with chronic illness or disability.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how spoon appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil.
While Ms. Fly was with Sharon in the kitchen, Sharon asked the defendant for a “spoon of drugs.” Defendant refused and stated that he did not know where drugs could be obtained.
Etymology
From Middle English spoon, spoune, spone, spon (“spoon, chip of wood”), from Old English spōn (“sliver, chip of wood, shaving”), from Proto-West Germanic *spānu, from Proto-Germanic *spēnuz (“chip, flake, shaving”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peH- (“chip, shaving, log, length of wood”). Cognate with Scots spun, spon (“spoon, shingle”), West Frisian spoen (“chip”), Dutch spaan (“chip, flinders”), German Span (“chip, flake, shaving”), Swedish spån (“chip, flake”), Norwegian Nynorsk spon (“chip, spoon”), Faroese spónur (“wood chip; spoon”), Ancient Greek σφήν (sphḗn, “wedge”)(though the connection to the Greek is likely impossible by modern reconstructions of PIE). Eclipsed non-native Middle English cuculer, coclear (“spoon”), from Old English cuculer, cuceler, cucler, borrowed from Latin cochlear (“spoon”). The "metaphoric unit of personal energy" sense was coined by writer and disability advocate Christine Miserandino in 2003 (see spoon theory).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- psoon
- sopon
- spon
- spono
- spoonn
- sppoon
- sspoon
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spoon - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "spoon", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).