tells
/tɛlz/
"tells" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tells” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,740. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,740
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - third-person singular simple present indicative of tell
Corpus desk
Index EN-tells · tells · English
tells · rank #1,740 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,740
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH standards
Nearest frequency peer: standards (-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 “tells”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- shooting
shooting
98,264 corpus weight
- shut
shut
98,263 corpus weight
- standards
standards
98,262 corpus weight
- tells
tells
98,261 corpus weight
- thinks
thinks
98,260 corpus weight
- van
van
98,259 corpus weight
What this shows “tells” 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 | tells |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /tɛlz/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,740 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “tells”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around tells (IPA /tɛlz/), averb. Corpus frequency is #1,740 among 3,151 “T” headwords. Dominant gloss: "third-person singular simple present indicative of tell".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for tells, with forms such as "etlls", "tellss", and "tels". 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, "till", "toll", "tens", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is tells, spelled T-E-L-L-S.
Definition
- 1third-person singular simple present indicative of tell
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- etlls
- tellss
- tels
- telsl
- tlels
- ttells
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tells - 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tells", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).