stone
/stəʊ̯n/
"stone" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stone” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,676. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,676
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - A hard earthen substance that can form rocks; especially, such substance when regarded as a building material.
Corpus desk
Index EN-stone · stone · English
stone · rank #1,676 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,676
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH somebody
Nearest frequency peer: somebody (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “stone”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- senate
senate
98,328 corpus weight
- smaller
smaller
98,327 corpus weight
- somebody
somebody
98,326 corpus weight
- stone
stone
98,325 corpus weight
- strength
strength
98,324 corpus weight
- wild
wild
98,322 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “stone” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | stone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /stəʊ̯n/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,676 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stone” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around stone (IPA /stəʊ̯n/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,676 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 13 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for stone, with forms such as "sotne", "sstone", and "stnoe". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "stop", "stun", "stow", 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 ston, stone, stan, from Old English stān, from Proto-West Germanic *stain, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”). Cognates Cognate with Scots stane (“stone”), Yola sthoan (“stone”), Nort… The correct English form is stone, spelled S-T-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1A hard earthen substance that can form rocks; especially, such substance when regarded as a building material.
- 2A piece of such material: a rock or a pebble.
- 3A gemstone, a jewel, especially a diamond.
- 4A unit of weight equal to 14 pounds (≈6.3503 kilograms), formerly used for various commodities (wool, cheese, etc.), but now principally used for personal weight. Abbreviated as st.
- 5The central part of some fruits, particularly drupes; consisting of the seed and a hard endocarp layer.
- 6A hard, stone-like deposit.
- 7A playing piece made of any hard material, used in various board games such as backgammon and go.
- 8A dull light grey or beige, like that of some stones.
- 9A 42-pound, precisely shaped piece of granite with a handle attached, which is bowled down the ice.
- 10A monument to the dead; a gravestone or tombstone.
- 11A mirror, or its glass.
- 12A testicle.
- 13A stand or table with a smooth, flat top of stone, commonly marble, on which to arrange the pages of a book, newspaper, etc. before printing.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how stone appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Toad, that vnder cold ſtone, / Dayes and Nights ha’s thirty one: / Sweltred Venom ſleeping got, / Boyle thou firſt i’th’ charmed pot.
The first day of the weeke, commeth Mary Magdalene earely when it was yet darke, vnto the Sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre.
Etymology
From Middle English ston, stone, stan, from Old English stān, from Proto-West Germanic *stain, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (“stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”). Cognates Cognate with Scots stane (“stone”), Yola sthoan (“stone”), North Frisian stean, stian, stiin, stiinj (“stone”), Saterland Frisian Steen (“stone”), West Frisian stien (“stone”), Alemannic German Steei (“rock, stone”), Bavarian Staa (“rock, stone”), Central Franconian Steen, Stään (“stone”), Dutch steen (“stone”), German Stein (“rock, stone”), German Low German Steen, Stein (“stone”), Luxembourgish Steen (“stone”), Vilamovian śtan (“stone”), Yiddish שטיין (shteyn, “stone”), Danish and Swedish sten (“stone”), Elfdalian stien (“stone”), Faroese steinur (“stone”), Gutnish stain (“rock, stone”), Icelandic steinn (“rock, stone”), Norwegian Bokmål stein, sten (“stone”), Norwegian Nynorsk steidn, stein (“stone”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (stains, “stone”). Compare also Ancient Greek στία (stía, “pebble”), στέαρ (stéar, “tallow”), Lithuanian sténgti (“to be able, make an effort; to oppose”), Russian стена́ (stená, “wall”), Albanian shtëng (“hardened or pressed matter”), Sanskrit स्तिया (stiyā, “still or stagnant water”). Doublet of stain, stean, and stein.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- sotne
- sstone
- stnoe
- stoen
- stonne
- sttone
- tsone
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stone - 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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "stone", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "stone". Here's where to go from here.
- "stone" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "stop". View pair
- 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #1,676 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.