symptom
/ˈsɪm(p)təm/
"symptom" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“symptom” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #12,340. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #12,340
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A perceived change in some function, sensation or appearance of a person that indicates a disease or disorder, such as fever, headache or rash; strictly, a symptom is felt or experienced by the pat...
Corpus desk
Index EN-symptom · symptom · English
symptom · rank #12,340 · 12 variants · 1 confusable
- FREQ-MID #12,340
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH swell
Nearest frequency peer: swell (-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 “symptom”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- supremacy
supremacy
87,664 corpus weight
- swallowed
swallowed
87,663 corpus weight
- swell
swell
87,662 corpus weight
- symptom
symptom
87,661 corpus weight
- thanked
thanked
87,660 corpus weight
- theoretical…
theoretically
87,659 corpus weight
What this shows “symptom” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | symptom |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɪm(p)təm/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #12,340 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “symptom”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around symptom (IPA /ˈsɪm(p)təm/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #12,340 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for symptom, with forms such as "smyptom", "ssymptom", and "symmptom". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "symptoms", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “a happening, accident, symptom of disease”), from stem of συμπίπτω (sumpíptō, “Ι befall”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”). The correct English form is symptom, spelled S-Y-M-P-T-O-M.
Definition
- 1A perceived change in some function, sensation or appearance of a person that indicates a disease or disorder, such as fever, headache or rash; strictly, a symptom is felt or experienced by the patient, while a sign can be detected by an observer.
- 2A signal; anything that indicates, or is characteristic of, the presence of something else, especially of something undesirable.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how symptom appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The doctor told that his coughing and sneezing was the symptom of standing for too long in the rain.
Swollen breasts, morning sickness, and a missed period are classic symptoms of pregnancy.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “a happening, accident, symptom of disease”), from stem of συμπίπτω (sumpíptō, “Ι befall”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- smyptom
- ssymptom
- symmptom
- sympotm
- sympptom
- symptmo
- symptomm
- sympttom
- symtpom
- sypmtom
- syymptom
- ysmptom
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of symptom - 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 "symptom"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "symptom", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).