square kilometre

noun

"square-kilometre" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“square kilometre” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
16
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Standard unit of area, symbol km², equal to the area of a square whose sides are one kilometre long; 10⁶ square metres.

Key facts for square kilometre
PropertyValue
Headwordsquare kilometre
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters16
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “square kilometre” sits in English frequency

square kilometre falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

square kilometre is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Standard unit of area, symbol km², equal to the area of a square whose sides are one kilometre long; 10⁶ square metres.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for square kilometre, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is square kilometre, spelled S-Q-U-A-R-E- -K-I-L-O-M-E-T-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Standard unit of area, symbol km², equal to the area of a square whose sides are one kilometre long; 10⁶ square metres.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "square kilometre"?
"square kilometre" is spelled S-Q-U-A-R-E- -K-I-L-O-M-E-T-R-E.
What does "square kilometre" mean?
As a noun, "square kilometre" means: Standard unit of area, symbol km², equal to the area of a square whose sides are one kilometre long; 10⁶ square metres.
What language does "square kilometre" come from?
"square kilometre" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Using “square kilometre”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-Q-U-A-R-E- -K-I-L-O-M-E-T-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list