startled
/ˈstɑɹt.l̩d/
"startled" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“startled” has 13 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #19,473. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #19,473
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Surprised and slightly frightened.
Corpus desk
Index EN-startled · startled · English
startled · rank #19,473 · 13 variants · 9 confusables
- FREQ-MID #19,473
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 13 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH stagnant
Nearest frequency peer: stagnant (-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 “startled”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- spectroscopy
spectroscopy
80,531 corpus weight
- spreadsheet
spreadsheet
80,530 corpus weight
- stagnant
stagnant
80,529 corpus weight
- startled
startled
80,528 corpus weight
- steaks
steaks
80,527 corpus weight
- Stephenson
Stephenson
80,526 corpus weight
What this shows “startled” 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 | startled |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈstɑɹt.l̩d/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #19,473 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “startled”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 13 spelling variants around startled (IPA /ˈstɑɹt.l̩d/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #19,473 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Surprised and slightly frightened.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for startled, with forms such as "satrtled", "sstartled", and "starlted". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "stated", "starved", "stared", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is startled, spelled S-T-A-R-T-L-E-D.
Definition
- 1Surprised and slightly frightened.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how startled appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The burnt and bleeding man staggered to his feet, dazed and unbelieving, and asked the startled townspeople who came running whether his fireman and guard were safe. He was kept away from the smouldering crater where his engine had been, and taken to hospital.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- satrtled
- sstartled
- starlted
- starrtled
- starteld
- startlde
- startledd
- startlled
- starttled
- statrled
- stratled
- sttartled
- tsartled
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of startled - 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.
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 "startled", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (13 here; floor ≥5).