tweed
/twiːd/
"tweed" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tweed” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #21,105. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #21,105
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A coarse woolen fabric used for clothing.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tweed · tweed · English
tweed · rank #21,105 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #21,105
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH ultimatum
Nearest frequency peer: ultimatum (+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 “tweed”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- trickle
trickle
78,899 corpus weight
- troupe
troupe
78,898 corpus weight
- tweed
tweed
78,896 corpus weight
- ultimatum
ultimatum
78,895 corpus weight
- uncut
uncut
78,894 corpus weight
- uninterrupt…
uninterrupted
78,893 corpus weight
What this shows “tweed” 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 | tweed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /twiːd/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #21,105 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “tweed”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around tweed (IPA /twiːd/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #21,105 among 3,151 “T” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A coarse woolen fabric used for clothing.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for tweed, with forms such as "tewed", "ttweed", and "twed". 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, "tweet", "typed", "Ted", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Attested since the 1830s. Probably a shortening or back-formation from Scots tweedling (“a type of twilled cloth”), attested since the 16th century and related to tweedle; the two words are variants of tweeling and tweel, which go back to Middle English twe… The correct English form is tweed, spelled T-W-E-E-D.
Definition
- 1A coarse woolen fabric used for clothing.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tweed appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
MICHAEL NOWAK, alias John Mazurkiewiez, was indicted for stealing, on the 15th of April, 2 1/4 yards of woollen cloth, called tweed, value 12s., and 2 1/4 yards of woollen cloth, called doe-skin, value 17s., […]
“Nothing very special, sir. He had a mack or coat over his arm, and a trilby hat. He wore a tweed suit, sir, I think.”
Etymology
Attested since the 1830s. Probably a shortening or back-formation from Scots tweedling (“a type of twilled cloth”), attested since the 16th century and related to tweedle; the two words are variants of tweeling and tweel, which go back to Middle English twel, twyle (“a type of woven fabric; twill”), whence also English twill. Scottish tradition says it derives directly from tweel when an English merchant misread tweels or tweeled (cloth) in an 1831 letter from a Scottish merchant as Tweed(s) and took it to be a trade-name based on the River Tweed, but the DSL says evidence for this is lacking, and because English merchants must have been familiar with tweel(ed cloth) before the 1830s, it seems unlikely to be based on misunderstanding tweel rather than on the well-attested tweedle. Several of the earliest citations, from 1839, 1841, and 1845 treat it as a new name for a familiar cloth.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- tewed
- ttweed
- twed
- twede
- tweedd
- twweed
- wteed
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tweed - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "tweed", 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 (7 here; floor ≥5).