winnowing
"winnowing" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“winnowing” is uncommon English (frequency #93,333 among 12,113 “W” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #93,333
- frequency rank, English
- 12,113
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The act of separating chaff from grain.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | winnowing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #93,333 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “winnowing” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
winnowing is uncommon English at frequency #93,333 among 12,113 “W” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The act of separating chaff from grain.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for winnowing in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is winnowing, spelled W-I-N-N-O-W-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The act of separating chaff from grain.
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 “winnowing”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-I-N-N-O-W-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.