sympathise
"sympathise" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sympathise” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #41,405 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #41,405
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 15
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of sympathize.
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 | sympathise |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #41,405 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sympathise” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sympathise is 10 letters long, classified as a verb. Corpus data places it at rank #41,405 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of sympathize.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for sympathise, with forms such as "smypathise", "ssympathise", and "symapthise". 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, "sympathize", "sympathizer", "sympathies", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French sympathiser. By surface analysis, sympathy + -ise. The correct English form is sympathise, spelled S-Y-M-P-A-T-H-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of sympathize.
Etymology
Borrowed from French sympathiser. By surface analysis, sympathy + -ise.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: smypathise,ssympathise,symapthise,symmpathise,sympahtise,sympathhise,sympathisse,sympathsie,sympatihse,sympatthise,symppathise,symptahise,sypmathise,syympathise,ysmpathise
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sympathise - 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 "sympathise"?
What does "sympathise" mean?
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Using “sympathise”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-Y-M-P-A-T-H-I-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “sympathize” - see the side-by-side comparison. sympathise vs sympathize
- 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.