sputter
/ˈspʌtɚ/
"sputter" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sputter” is uncommon English (frequency #73,651 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,651
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Moist matter thrown out in small detached particles.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sputter · sputter · English
sputter · rank #73,651 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #73,651
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH sparkler
Nearest frequency peer: sparkler (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “sputter”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- southeaster…
southeasterly
26,354 corpus weight
- Soyinka
Soyinka
26,353 corpus weight
- spammy
spammy
26,352 corpus weight
- sparkler
sparkler
26,351 corpus weight
- sputter
sputter
26,350 corpus weight
- statesmansh…
statesmanship
26,346 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sputter” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sputter |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈspʌtɚ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #73,651 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sputter” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sputter is uncommon English at frequency #73,651 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈspʌtɚ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for sputter in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Probably representing Middle English *sputren, *sputrien, a frequentative form of Middle English sputen (“to spout, vomit”), equivalent to spout + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian spüttern (“to inject, spray, splash”), West Frisian sputterje (“to sputter… The correct English form is sputter, spelled S-P-U-T-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1Moist matter thrown out in small detached particles.
- 2Confused and hasty speech.
Etymology
Probably representing Middle English *sputren, *sputrien, a frequentative form of Middle English sputen (“to spout, vomit”), equivalent to spout + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian spüttern (“to inject, spray, splash”), West Frisian sputterje (“to sputter”), Dutch sputteren (“to sputter”), Low German sputtern, spruttern (“to sprinkle”), German sprudeln (“to spout, squirt”). Compare splutter.
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 "sputter", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).