water lily
"water-lily" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“water lily” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various members of the Nymphaeaceae family that are tuberous plants, rooted in soil with leaves (lily pads) and flowers floating on the water surface.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | water lily |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “water lily” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
water lily is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for water lily, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is water lily, spelled W-A-T-E-R- -L-I-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Any of various members of the Nymphaeaceae family that are tuberous plants, rooted in soil with leaves (lily pads) and flowers floating on the water surface.
- 2Species of genus Nymphoides, fringed water lily and similar plants.
- 3Species of genus Nelumbo.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “water lily”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-A-T-E-R- -L-I-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.