struggle
/ˈstɹʌɡəl/
"struggle" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“struggle” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,408 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,408
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A contortion of the body in an attempt to escape or to perform a difficult task.
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 | struggle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈstɹʌɡəl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #2,408 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “struggle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for struggle is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈstɹʌɡəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,408 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for struggle, with forms such as "srtuggle", "sstruggle", and "strgugle". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "struggled", "smuggle", "snuggle", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English struglen, stroglen, strogelen, of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots strugil (“to struggle, grapple, contend”). Perhaps from a variant of *strokelen, *stroukelen (> English stroll), from Middle Dutch struyckelen ("to stumble, trip, falte… The correct English form is struggle, spelled S-T-R-U-G-G-L-E.
Definition
- 1A contortion of the body in an attempt to escape or to perform a difficult task.
- 2Strife, contention, great effort.
Etymology
From Middle English struglen, stroglen, strogelen, of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots strugil (“to struggle, grapple, contend”). Perhaps from a variant of *strokelen, *stroukelen (> English stroll), from Middle Dutch struyckelen ("to stumble, trip, falter"; > Modern Dutch struikelen), the frequentative form of Old Dutch *strūkon (“to stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *strūkōną, *strūkēną (“to be stiff”), from Proto-Indo-European *strug-, *ster- (“to be stiff; to bristle, strut, stumble, fall”), related to Middle Low German strûkelen ("to stumble"; > Low German strükeln), Old High German strūhhēn, strūhhōn ("to stumble, trip, tumble, go astray"; > German strauchen, straucheln). Alternative etymology derives the base of struggle from Old Norse strúgr (“arrogance, pride, spitefulness, ill-will”) + -le (frequentative suffix), from Proto-Germanic *strūkaz (“stiff, rigid”), ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European root above, which would make it cognate with dialectal Swedish strug (“contention, strife, discord”), Norwegian stru (“obstinate, unruly”), Danish struende (“reluctantly”), Scots strug (“difficulty, perplexity, a laborious task”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: srtuggle,sstruggle,strgugle,strruggle,struggel,strugglle,strugle,struglge,sttruggle,sturggle,tsruggle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of struggle - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Using “struggle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-R-U-G-G-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈstɹʌɡəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “struggled” - see the side-by-side comparison. struggle vs struggled
- 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.