sublime
/səˈblaɪm/
"sublime" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sublime” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,522 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #15,522
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Synonym of sublimate.
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 | sublime |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /səˈblaɪm/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #15,522 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sublime” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sublime is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /səˈblaɪm/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,522 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for sublime, with forms such as "sbulime", "ssublime", and "subblime". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "subside", "subprime", "slime", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *upó Partly from the following: * From Middle English sublimen, sublime, sublyme (“to exalt, extol, glorify, honour; (alchemy) to refine (a substance) by vaporizing in a closed container; to obtain (a substance) by cooling vapour obtained through … The correct English form is sublime, spelled S-U-B-L-I-M-E.
Definition
- 1Synonym of sublimate.
- 2Synonym of sublimate.
- 3To raise (someone or an intangible thing) to a state of (especially moral or spiritual) excellence; to exalt.
- 4To cause (someone or something) to ascend; to raise (someone or something) to a high position.
- 5To cause (juice or sap) to rise in a plant.
- 6Especially of the sun: to heat (something) and cause vapours, etc., to rise from it.
- 7To purify (someone) from a bad influence or from sin.
- 8To raise (someone) to a high office or status; to dignify, to exalt.
- 9To raise (a physical thing) to a state of excellence; to improve.
- 10Synonym of sublimate.
- 11Synonym of sublimate.
- 12To become higher in quality or status; to improve.
Etymology
PIE word *upó Partly from the following: * From Middle English sublimen, sublime, sublyme (“to exalt, extol, glorify, honour; (alchemy) to refine (a substance) by vaporizing in a closed container; to obtain (a substance) by cooling vapour obtained through sublimation; to extract (a pure substance) from a mixture by sublimation; to sublimate (a substance)”), from Middle French sublimer, Old French sublimer (“to exalt, glorify, honour; to refine (a substance) by vaporizing in a closed container; of a substance: to undergo sublimation”) (modern French sublimer), and from its etymon Latin sublīmāre, the present active infinitive of sublimō (“to elevate, raise; to soar”) (compare Late Latin sublimō (“to elevate, raise; to exalt, glorify, honour; to sublimate, vaporize”)), from sublīmis (“elevated, raised; exalted, uplifted, sublime; elevated in style”) (from sub- (prefix meaning ‘under; up to’) + possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l- (“to bend”) (whence Latin līmen (“threshold”) and līmus (“askew; sideways”))) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). * From sublime (adjective). Cognates * Catalan sublimar * Italian sublimare * Old Occitan sublimar * Portuguese sublimar * Spanish sublimar
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sbulime,ssublime,subblime,subilme,subliem,sublimme,subllime,sublmie,sulbime,usblime
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sublime - 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
How do you spell "sublime"?
What does "sublime" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sublime"?
How do you pronounce "sublime"?
What is the origin of the word "sublime"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sublime”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-B-L-I-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /səˈblaɪm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “subside” - see the side-by-side comparison. sublime vs subside
- 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.