swan
/swɒn/
"swan" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“swan” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,108 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,108
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various species of large, long-necked waterfowl, of genus Cygnus (bird family: Anatidae), most of which have white plumage.
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 | swan |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /swɒn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #9,108 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “swan” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for swan is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /swɒn/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,108 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for swan, with forms such as "sswan", "swna", and "swwan". 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, "syn", "swim", "swap", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *swónh₂-osder. Proto-Germanic *swanaz Proto-West Germanic *swan Old English swan Middle English swan English swan From Middle English swan, from Old English swan, from Proto-West Germanic *… The correct English form is swan, spelled S-W-A-N.
Definition
- 1Any of various species of large, long-necked waterfowl, of genus Cygnus (bird family: Anatidae), most of which have white plumage.
- 2One whose grace etc. suggests a swan.
- 3This bird used as a heraldic charge, sometimes with a crown around its neck (e. g. the arms of Buckinghamshire).
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *swónh₂-osder. Proto-Germanic *swanaz Proto-West Germanic *swan Old English swan Middle English swan English swan From Middle English swan, from Old English swan, from Proto-West Germanic *swan, from Proto-Germanic *swanaz (“swan”, literally “the singing bird”), from Proto-Indo-European *swonh₂-/*swenh₂- (“to sing, make sound”). Cognate with West Frisian swan, Low German Swaan, swan, Dutch zwaan, German Schwan, Danish svane, Norwegian svane, Swedish svan. Related also to Old English ġeswin (“melody, song”), Old English swinsian (“to make melody”). Further cognates include (possibly) Russian звон (zvon, “ring, chime”); Latin sonus (“sound”), Sanskrit स्वन् (svan, “sound”). Doublet of sound.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sswan,swna,swwan,wsan
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of swan - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "swan"?
What does "swan" mean?
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Using “swan”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-W-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /swɒn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “syn” - see the side-by-side comparison. swan vs syn
- 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.