vandal
/ˈvændəl/
"vandal" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“vandal” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #37,757 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #37,757
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person who needlessly destroys, defaces, or damages things, especially other people's property.
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 | vandal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈvændəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #37,757 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “vandal” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for vandal is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈvændəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #37,757 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A person who needlessly destroys, defaces, or damages things, especially other people's property.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for vandal, with forms such as "avndal", "vadnal", and "vanadl". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "vassal", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 1660s, “willful destroyer of what is beautiful or venerable”, from Vandal, referring to a member of an ancient Germanic people, the Vandals, who are associated with senseless destruction as a result of their sack of Rome under King Genseric in 455. During t… The correct English form is vandal, spelled V-A-N-D-A-L.
Definition
- 1A person who needlessly destroys, defaces, or damages things, especially other people's property.
Etymology
1660s, “willful destroyer of what is beautiful or venerable”, from Vandal, referring to a member of an ancient Germanic people, the Vandals, who are associated with senseless destruction as a result of their sack of Rome under King Genseric in 455. During the Enlightenment, Rome was idealized, while the Goths and Vandals were blamed for its destruction. The Vandals may not have been any more destructive than other invaders of ancient times, but they did inspire English poet John Dryden to write, Till Goths, and Vandals, a rude Northern race, Did all the matchless Monuments deface (1694). However, the Vandals did intentionally damage statues, which may be why their name is associated with the vandalism of art. The coining of French Vandalisme by Henri Grégoire in 1794 to describe the destruction of artwork following the French Revolution popularized the idea further, and the term was quickly adopted across Europe, including as English vandalism.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: avndal,vadnal,vanadl,vandall,vanddal,vandla,vanndal,vnadal,vvandal
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of vandal - 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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Using “vandal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is V-A-N-D-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈvændəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “vassal” - see the side-by-side comparison. vandal vs vassal
- 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.