thought
/θɔt/
"thought" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“thought” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #235 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #235
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or taste; an instance of thinking.
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 | thought |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /θɔt/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #235 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “thought” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for thought is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /θɔt/. Corpus data places it at rank #235 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for thought, with forms such as "htought", "thhought", and "thoguht". 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, "tough", "trough", "through", 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 *teng-der. Proto-Germanic *þankijaną Proto-Germanic *þanhtaz Proto-West Germanic *þą̄ht Old English þōht Middle English thought English thought From Middle English thought, ithoȝt, from Old English þōht, ġeþōht, from Proto… The correct English form is thought, spelled T-H-O-U-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1A representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or taste; an instance of thinking.
- 2The operation by which mental activity arise or are manipulated; the process of thinking; the agency by which thinking is accomplished.
- 3A way of thinking (associated with a group, nation or region).
- 4Anxiety, distress.
- 5The careful consideration of multiple factors; deliberation.
- 6A very small amount, distance, etc.; a whit or jot.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *teng-der. Proto-Germanic *þankijaną Proto-Germanic *þanhtaz Proto-West Germanic *þą̄ht Old English þōht Middle English thought English thought From Middle English thought, ithoȝt, from Old English þōht, ġeþōht, from Proto-West Germanic *þą̄ht, from Proto-Germanic *þanhtaz, *gaþanhtą (“thought”), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think”). Cognate with Scots thocht (“thought”), Saterland Frisian Toacht (“thought”), West Frisian dacht (“attention, regard, thought”), Dutch gedachte (“thought”), German Andacht (“reverence, devotion, prayer”), Icelandic þóttur (“thought”). Related to thank, think.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: htought,thhought,thoguht,thougght,thoughht,thoughtt,thougth,thouhgt,thuoght,tohught,tthought
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of thought - 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
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Using “thought”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-H-O-U-G-H-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /θɔt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “tough” - see the side-by-side comparison. thought vs tough
- 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.