tonsils

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"tonsils" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“tonsils” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #37,739. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#37,739
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - plural of tonsil

Corpus desk

Index EN-tonsils · tonsils · English

tonsils · rank #37,739 · 11 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-MID #37,739
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH tomboy

Nearest frequency peer: tomboy (-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 “tonsils”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “tonsils” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

tonsils vs tensile
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for tonsils
PropertyValue
Headwordtonsils
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Frequency rank#37,739
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “tonsils”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).tonsilslands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “tomboy” (#37,738), “Triassic” (#37,742), “Tiananmen” (#37,735). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “tonsils” is #37,739. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around tonsils, anoun. Corpus frequency is #37,739 among 3,151 “T” headwords. Dominant gloss: "plural of tonsil".

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for tonsils, with forms such as "otnsils", "tnosils", and "tonisls". 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, "tensile", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is tonsils, spelled T-O-N-S-I-L-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    plural of tonsil

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how tonsils appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. “So now everything's fine.” I uttered a hacking laugh. “No,” I said, in answer to a query from Aunt Dahlia. “I have not accidentally swallowed my tonsils, I was merely laughing hackingly. Ironical that the young blister should say that everything is fine, for at this very moment disaster stares us in the eyeball.”

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • otnsils
  • tnosils
  • tonisls
  • tonnsils
  • tonsills
  • tonsilss
  • tonsisl
  • tonslis
  • tonssils
  • tosnils
  • ttonsils

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tonsils - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

otnsils2tnosils2tonisls2tonnsils1tonsills1tonsilss1tonsisl2tonslis2
Edit distance from "tonsils"

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 "tonsils"?
"tonsils" is spelled T-O-N-S-I-L-S.
What does "tonsils" mean?
As a noun, "tonsils" means: plural of tonsil
What words are commonly confused with "tonsils"?
"tonsils" is commonly confused with "tensile". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "tonsils" come from?
"tonsils" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tonsils", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

thorium#37,733unloved#37,752Stryker#37,712witcher#37,772

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

terrorize11 variantsVillanova11 variantssuburbia11 variantsskittles11 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list