style
/staɪl/
"style" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“style” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #818 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #818
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Senses relating to a thin, pointed object.
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 | style |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /staɪl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #818 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “style” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for style is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /staɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #818 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for style, with forms such as "sstyle", "stlye", and "sttyle". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Styx", "styled", "stylus", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English stile, stel, stele, stiel, stiele, stil, still, stille, styele, style, styill, styll, styyl (“writing tool, stylus; piece of written work; characteristic mode of expression, particularly one regarded as high quality; … The correct English form is style, spelled S-T-Y-L-E.
Definition
- 1Senses relating to a thin, pointed object.
- 2Senses relating to a thin, pointed object.
- 3Senses relating to a thin, pointed object.
- 4Senses relating to a thin, pointed object.
- 5Senses relating to a thin, pointed object.
- 6Senses relating to a thin, pointed object.
- 7Senses relating to a thin, pointed object.
- 8A particular manner of expression in writing or speech, especially one regarded as good.
- 9A particular manner of expression in writing or speech, especially one regarded as good.
- 10A particular manner of expression in writing or speech, especially one regarded as good.
- 11A particular manner of creating, doing, or presenting something, especially a work of architecture or art.
- 12A particular manner of creating, doing, or presenting something, especially a work of architecture or art.
- 13A particular manner of creating, doing, or presenting something, especially a work of architecture or art.
- 14A particular manner of creating, doing, or presenting something, especially a work of architecture or art.
- 15A particular manner of creating, doing, or presenting something, especially a work of architecture or art.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English stile, stel, stele, stiel, stiele, stil, still, stille, styele, style, styill, styll, styyl (“writing tool, stylus; piece of written work; characteristic mode of expression, particularly one regarded as high quality; demeanour, manner, way of life; person's designation or title; stem of a plant; period of time”) (compare semantic development to по́черк (póčerk, “handwriting, style”)), from Old French style, estile, stil, stile (modern French style), or from Medieval Latin stylus, both from Latin stilus (“pointed instrument, pale, spike, stake; writing tool, stylus; act of setting down in writing, composition; characteristic mode of expression, style; stem of a plant”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to be sharp; to pierce, prick, puncture, stab; to goad”). Doublet of stylus. The English word is cognate with Catalan estil (“engraving tool, stylus; gnomon; manner of doing something, style; fashionable skill, grace”), German Stiel (“handle; stalk”), Italian stilo (“needle, stylus; fountain pen; beam; gnomon; part of pistil, style”), Occitan estil, Portuguese estilo (“writing tool, stylus; manner of doing something, style”), Spanish estilo (“writing tool, stylus; manner of doing something, style; fashionable skill, grace; part of pistil, style”). The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sstyle,stlye,sttyle,styel,stylle,styyle,sytle,tsyle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of style - 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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Using “style”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-Y-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /staɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Styx” - see the side-by-side comparison. style vs Styx
- 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.