tree
/tɹiː/
"tree" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tree” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,508) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #1,508
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A perennial woody plant taller and larger than a shrub with a wooden trunk and, at some distance from the ground, having leaves and branches.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tree · tree · English
tree · rank #1,508 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,508
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH traffic
Nearest frequency peer: traffic (-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 “tree”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- species
species
98,496 corpus weight
- speech
speech
98,495 corpus weight
- traffic
traffic
98,494 corpus weight
- tree
tree
98,493 corpus weight
- types
types
98,492 corpus weight
- wearing
wearing
98,490 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “tree” 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 | tree |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tɹiː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,508 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tree” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for tree is neighbouring look-alikes ("try", "tri", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /tɹiː/. Frequency #1,508 among 3,151 “T” headwords. 15 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for tree, with forms such as "rtee", "tere", and "trree". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "try", "tri", "Tue", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *drew- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Germanic *trewą Proto-West Germanic *treu Old English trēow Middle English tre English tree PIE word *dóru From Middle English trau, tre, tree, treo, treou, trew, trewe, troe, trouȝh… The correct English form is tree, spelled T-R-E-E.
Definition
- 1A perennial woody plant taller and larger than a shrub with a wooden trunk and, at some distance from the ground, having leaves and branches.
- 2Any other plant (such as a large shrub or herb) that is reminiscent of the above in form and size.
- 3An object made from a tree trunk and having multiple hooks or storage platforms.
- 4A device used to hold or stretch a shoe open.
- 5The structural frame of a saddle.
- 6A connected graph with no cycles or, if the graph is finite, equivalently a connected graph with n vertices and n−1 edges.
- 7A recursive data structure in which each node has zero or more nodes as children, but does not share children with other nodes.
- 8A display or listing of entries or elements such that there are primary and secondary entries shown, usually linked by drawn lines or by indenting to the right.
- 9Any structure or construct having branches representing divergence or possible choices.
- 10The structure or wooden frame used in the construction of a saddle used in horse riding.
- 11Marijuana.
- 12A cross or gallows.
- 13A mass of crystals, aggregated in arborescent forms, obtained by precipitation of a metal from solution.
- 14The fifth Lenormand card.
- 15Alternative letter-case form of TREE.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tree appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hyperion is the tallest living tree in the world.
Birds have a nest in a tree in the garden.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *drew- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Germanic *trewą Proto-West Germanic *treu Old English trēow Middle English tre English tree PIE word *dóru From Middle English trau, tre, tree, treo, treou, trew, trewe, troe, trouȝh, trouȝgh, trow, trowe, from Old English trēo, trēow, trēu, trīo, trīow, trȳw (“tree; wood; forest; beam, cudgel, log; cross”), from Proto-West Germanic *treu, from Proto-Germanic *trewą (“tree”), from pre-Germanic *dréwom, thematic e-grade derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”). Related to tar, true. Cognates Cognate with Dutch teer (“tree”), Danish, Faroese, and Scanian træ (“tree; timber, wood”), Elfdalian trai (“tree; timber, wood”), Icelandic tré (“tree; wood”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk tre (“tree; wood”), Swedish trä (“wood; tree”), träd (“tree”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌿 (triu, “piece of wood”); also Breton derv (“oak”), Cornish dar (“oak”), Irish dair (“oak”), Manx darragh (“oak; oaken”), Scottish Gaelic darach (“oak”), Welsh dâr (“oak”), Ancient Greek δόρυ (dóru, “tree; wood; spear”) (whence Greek δόρυ (dóry, “pike, spear”)), Albanian dru (“tree; wood”), Latvian darva (“tar”), Lithuanian derva (“tar; resin”), Belarusian дзе́рава (dzjérava, “tree”), дрэ́ва (dréva, “tree; wood”), Czech drvo, dřevo (“wood”), Polish drzewo (“tree; wood”), Russian де́рево (dérevo), дре́во (drévo, “tree; wood”), Serbo-Croatian др̏во, drȇvo, drijȇvo, drȋvo, dȑvo (“tree; wood”), Slovak and Slovene drevo (“tree; wood”), Ukrainian де́рево (dérevo, “tree; wood”), Armenian տարր (tarr, “element; component”), Avestan 𐬛𐬁𐬎𐬭𐬎 (dāᵘru, “wood”), Central Kurdish and Persian دار (dâr, “tree; wood”), Northern Kurdish dar (“tree”), Zazaki dare (“tree”), Hittite 𒋫𒊒 (taru), 𒋫𒀀𒊒 (táru, “tree; wood”), Luwian 𒋫𒀀𒊒 (tāru, “wood”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B or (“wood”), Sanskrit दारु (dāru, “timber, wood”). Replaced alternative Middle English beem, from Old English bēam (see beam) and eclipsed non-native Middle English arbre, borrowed from Old French arbre.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- rtee
- tere
- trree
- ttree
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tree - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tree", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "tree". Here's where to go from here.
- "tree" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "try". View pair
- 4 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #1,508 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "T" letter cohort. T–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.