Sufi
"sufi" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Sufi” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #32,611 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #32,611
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A mystic Muslim; a Muslim ascetic; a practitioner of Sufism.
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 | Sufi |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #32,611 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Sufi” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Sufi is 4 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #32,611 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A mystic Muslim; a Muslim ascetic; a practitioner of Sufism.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for Sufi, with forms such as "sfui", "ssufi", and "suffi". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sun", "sum", "SUV", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ottoman Turkish صوفی (sufi), from Arabic صُوفِيّ (ṣūfiyy, “man of wool”). The correct English form is Sufi, spelled S-U-F-I.
Definition
- 1A mystic Muslim; a Muslim ascetic; a practitioner of Sufism.
Etymology
From Ottoman Turkish صوفی (sufi), from Arabic صُوفِيّ (ṣūfiyy, “man of wool”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sfui,ssufi,suffi,suif,usfi
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Sufi - 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
How do you spell "Sufi"?
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Using “Sufi”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-F-I - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “sun” - see the side-by-side comparison. Sufi vs sun
- 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.