thought
/θɔt/
"thought" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“thought” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #235. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #235
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
- 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.
Corpus desk
Index EN-thought · thought · English
thought · rank #235 · 11 variants · 6 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #235
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 27,828
- PHOTO-FINISH set
Nearest frequency peer: set (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “thought”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- different
different
99,769 corpus weight
- having
having
99,768 corpus weight
- set
set
99,767 corpus weight
- thought
thought
99,766 corpus weight
- done
done
99,765 corpus weight
- however
however
99,764 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “thought” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around thought (IPA /θɔt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #235 among 27,828 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how thought appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
I hate the thought of going back to work Monday morning.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What does "thought" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "thought", 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 (11 here; floor ≥5).
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.