sty
/staɪ/
"sty" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sty” is uncommon English (frequency #55,123 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,123
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A pen or enclosure for swine.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sty |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /staɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #55,123 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sty” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sty is uncommon English at frequency #55,123 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /staɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sty, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sty, from Old English stī, stiġ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall”, chiefly in compounds). Cognate with German Stiege (“wooden crate”), dialectal German Steige (“hen-coop”), Danish sti (“sty, enclosure for swine, sheep, hens, etc.”), … The correct English form is sty, spelled S-T-Y.
Definition
- 1A pen or enclosure for swine.
- 2A messy, dirty or debauched place.
Etymology
From Middle English sty, from Old English stī, stiġ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall”, chiefly in compounds). Cognate with German Stiege (“wooden crate”), dialectal German Steige (“hen-coop”), Danish sti (“sty, enclosure for swine, sheep, hens, etc.”), Swedish stia (“sty for pigs, geese, etc.”), Norwegian sti (“flock of sheep”), Icelandic stía (“a kennel”).
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); 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 “sty”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /staɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.