sulfide

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"sulfide" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sulfide” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #32,200. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#32,200
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
6
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any compound of sulfur and a metal or other electropositive element or group.

Corpus desk

Index EN-sulfide · sulfide · English

sulfide · rank #32,200 · 10 variants · 6 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #32,200
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH subtropical

Nearest frequency peer: subtropical (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “sulfide”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “sulfide” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

sulfide vs slide
71% similar
sulfide vs selfie
71% similar
sulfide vs suicide
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for sulfide
PropertyValue
Headwordsulfide
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Frequency rank#32,200
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “sulfide”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).sulfidelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “subtropical” (#32,199), “summation” (#32,201), “stubbornly” (#32,198). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “sulfide” is #32,200. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around sulfide, anoun. Corpus frequency is #32,200 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for sulfide, with forms such as "slufide", "ssulfide", and "suflide". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "slide", "selfie", "suicide", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: From sulf(ur) + -ide. The correct English form is sulfide, spelled S-U-L-F-I-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any compound of sulfur and a metal or other electropositive element or group.
  2. 2
    (organosulfide) A class of organic compounds RSR', where R and R' represent an alkyl group or other organic substituent.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how sulfide appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Newmont Mining Corp's Yanacocha sulfides project to expand gold production in Peru has been delayed and will only be developed "at the pace the pandemic allows," CEO Tom Palmer said on Wednesday at an industry conference.
  2. By analysing data from the James Webb Space Telescope, the researchers found evidence of dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide in the atmosphere of the planet known as K2-18b. The planet is 124 light-years away; one light-year is equivalent to nearly 6 trillion miles.

Etymology

From sulf(ur) + -ide.

This word in other languages

sulfuro(Español)sulfure(Français)Sulfid(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • slufide
  • ssulfide
  • suflide
  • sulfdie
  • sulffide
  • sulfidde
  • sulfied
  • sulifde
  • sullfide
  • uslfide

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sulfide - 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.

slufide2ssulfide1suflide2sulfdie2sulffide1sulfidde1sulfied2sulifde2
Edit distance from "sulfide"

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 "sulfide"?
"sulfide" is spelled S-U-L-F-I-D-E.
What does "sulfide" mean?
As a noun, "sulfide" means: Any compound of sulfur and a metal or other electropositive element or group.
What words are commonly confused with "sulfide"?
"sulfide" is commonly confused with "slide", "selfie", "suicide". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What is the origin of the word "sulfide"?
From sulf(ur) + -ide. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sulfide", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

stinger#32,195tableau#32,205stifled#32,194slasher#32,184

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

Satoshi10 variantsremodel10 variantswiseman10 variantswoefully10 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list