spout

/spaʊt/

//spaʊt// noun

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

"spout" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“spout” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #25,218. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#25,218
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tube or lip through which liquid or steam is poured or discharged.

Corpus desk

Index EN-spout · spout · English

spout · rank #25,218 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #25,218
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH spire

Nearest frequency peer: spire (-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 “spout”

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

corpus weight

What this shows “spout” 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

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

spout vs spun
60% similar
spout vs spur
60% similar
spout vs spud
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for spout
PropertyValue
Headwordspout
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/spaʊt/
Letters5
Frequency rank#25,218
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “spout”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).spoutlands here:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “spire” (#25,217), “sprout” (#25,219), “spectacles” (#25,216). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “spout” is #25,218. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around spout (IPA /spaʊt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #25,218 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for spout, with forms such as "psout", "soput", and "spotu". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "spun", "spur", "spud", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English spouten, from Middle Dutch spoiten, spouten (> Dutch spuiten (“to spout”)), from Old Dutch *spūten, *spīuten, *spīwetten, from Proto-West Germanic *spīwattjan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwatjaną. Compare Swedish spruta (“squirt, syringe”). … The correct English form is spout, spelled S-P-O-U-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    A tube or lip through which liquid or steam is poured or discharged.
  2. 2
    A waterspout (“channel through which water is discharged, especially from the gutters of a roof”).
  3. 3
    A stream or discharge of liquid, typically with some degree of force.
  4. 4
    A stream of water that falls from higher to lower; a (typically thin) waterfall.
  5. 5
    A similar stream or fall of earth, rock, etc.
  6. 6
    A waterspout (“whirlwind or tornado that forms over water”).
  7. 7
    The mixture of air and water thrown up from the blowhole of a whale.
  8. 8
    A hollow stump formed when a tree branch breaks off.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. I dropped my china teapot, and its spout broke.
  2. I put a spout in the maple tree to collect its sap

Etymology

From Middle English spouten, from Middle Dutch spoiten, spouten (> Dutch spuiten (“to spout”)), from Old Dutch *spūten, *spīuten, *spīwetten, from Proto-West Germanic *spīwattjan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwatjaną. Compare Swedish spruta (“squirt, syringe”). See also spit, spew.

This word in other languages

pico(Español)bec verseur(Français)Tülle(Deutsch)bico(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • psout
  • soput
  • spotu
  • spoutt
  • sppout
  • spuot
  • sspout

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of spout - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

psout2soput2spotu2spoutt1sppout1spuot2sspout1
Edit distance from "spout"

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 "spout"?
"spout" is spelled S-P-O-U-T. The IPA pronunciation is /spaʊt/.
What does "spout" mean?
As a noun, "spout" means: A tube or lip through which liquid or steam is poured or discharged.
What words are commonly confused with "spout"?
"spout" is commonly confused with "spun", "spur", "spud". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "spout"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "spout" is /spaʊt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "spout"?
From Middle English spouten, from Middle Dutch spoiten, spouten (> Dutch spuiten (“to spout”)), from Old Dutch *spūten, *spīuten, *spīwetten, from Proto-West Germanic *spīwattjan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwatjaną. Compare Swedish spruta (“squirt, s... 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 "spout", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

spire#25,217sully#25,227rower#25,193Rocco#25,189

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

tellin7 variantstopper7 variantssalaam7 variantsrevel7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list