William
/ˈwɪl.i.əm/
"william" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“William” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,414 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,414
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter W.
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 | William |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɪl.i.əm/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,414 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “William” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for William is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwɪl.i.əm/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,414 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter W.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for William, with forms such as "iwlliam", "wiliam", and "wililam". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "willie", "Willis", "willing", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English William, from Anglo-Norman Willame, from Old High German Willahelm, from Proto-Germanic *Wiljahelmaz (> Latin Gulielmus), from Proto-Germanic *wiljô (“will”) + *helmaz (“helmet”), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European roots *welh₁- (“t… The correct English form is William, spelled W-I-L-L-I-A-M.
Definition
- 1radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter W.
Etymology
From Middle English William, from Anglo-Norman Willame, from Old High German Willahelm, from Proto-Germanic *Wiljahelmaz (> Latin Gulielmus), from Proto-Germanic *wiljô (“will”) + *helmaz (“helmet”), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European roots *welh₁- (“to choose, wish, want”) and *ḱel- (“to cover, conceal, save”) respectively. Cognate with Dutch Willem, German Wilhelm, etc.; cognate borrowings outside of Germanic include Guillaume and Guillermo.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iwlliam,wiliam,wililam,willaim,williamm,willima,wliliam,wwilliam
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of William - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “William”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-I-L-L-I-A-M - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɪl.i.əm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “willie” - see the side-by-side comparison. William vs willie
- 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.