sportsmanship

noun

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

"sportsmanship" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sportsmanship” has 22 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #28,738. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#28,738
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
22
tracked misspellings

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The good attitude/behaviour displayed by players of a game; fairness, determination, magnanimity, courtesy towards opponents, and winning or losing gracefully.

Corpus desk

Index EN-sportsmanship · sportsmanship · English

sportsmanship · rank #28,738 · 22 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #28,738
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 22 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH Spiegel

Nearest frequency peer: Spiegel (-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 “sportsmanship”

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

corpus weight

What this shows “sportsmanship” 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 sportsmanship
PropertyValue
Headwordsportsmanship
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Frequency rank#28,738
Misspellings tracked22
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “sportsmanship”

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).sportsmanshiplands here:

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

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “Spiegel” (#28,737), “sprinting” (#28,739), “spicer” (#28,736). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “sportsmanship” is #28,738. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 22 spelling variants around sportsmanship, anoun. Corpus frequency is #28,738 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 22 likely wrong-spelling variants for sportsmanship, with forms such as "psortsmanship", "soprtsmanship", and "sporrtsmanship". 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. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From sports + -manship. The correct English form is sportsmanship, spelled S-P-O-R-T-S-M-A-N-S-H-I-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    The good attitude/behaviour displayed by players of a game; fairness, determination, magnanimity, courtesy towards opponents, and winning or losing gracefully.
  2. 2
    The behaviour exhibited in playing sports, either good or bad.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. James showed good sportsmanship in consoling Shankar after his wicket fell.

Etymology

From sports + -manship.

This word in other languages

sportivité(Français)Sportsgeist(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • psortsmanship
  • soprtsmanship
  • sporrtsmanship
  • sporstmanship
  • sportmsanship
  • sportsamnship
  • sportsmanhsip
  • sportsmannship
  • sportsmanshhip
  • sportsmanshipp
  • sportsmanshpi
  • sportsmansihp
  • sportsmansship
  • sportsmasnhip
  • sportsmmanship
  • sportsmnaship
  • sportssmanship
  • sporttsmanship
  • spotrsmanship
  • spportsmanship
  • sprotsmanship
  • ssportsmanship

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

psortsmanship2soprtsmanship2sporrtsmanship1sporstmanship2sportmsanship2sportsamnship2sportsmanhsip2sportsmannship1
Edit distance from "sportsmanship"

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 "sportsmanship"?
"sportsmanship" is spelled S-P-O-R-T-S-M-A-N-S-H-I-P.
What does "sportsmanship" mean?
As a noun, "sportsmanship" means: The good attitude/behaviour displayed by players of a game; fairness, determination, magnanimity, courtesy towards opponents, and winning or losing gracefully.
What are common misspellings of "sportsmanship"?
Common misspellings include "psortsmanship", "soprtsmanship", "sporrtsmanship", "sporstmanship", "sportmsanship". The correct spelling is "sportsmanship".
What is the origin of the word "sportsmanship"?
From sports + -manship. 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 "sportsmanship", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

irreplaceable#28,600ideologically#28,953individualism#28,955antimicrobial#28,453

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (22 here; floor ≥5).

congratulating22 variantsnanotechnology22 variantsdisintegration22 variantsinsurmountable22 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list