wolf
/wʊlf/
"wolf" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wolf” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,995 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,995
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
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 | wolf |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /wʊlf/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #3,995 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wolf” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wolf is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wʊlf/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,995 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for wolf, with forms such as "owlf", "wlof", and "wofl". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "won", "wow", "WTF", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English wolf, from Old English wulf, ƿulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos. Doublet of lobo and lupus. Cognates Cognate with Scots wouf, North Frisian wulew, Saterland Fris… The correct English form is wolf, spelled W-O-L-F.
Definition
- 1Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
- 2Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.
- 3A man who makes amorous advances to many women.
- 4A wolf tone or wolf note.
- 5Any very ravenous, rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation.
- 6One of the destructive, and usually hairy, larvae of several species of beetles and grain moths.
- 7A white worm which infests granaries, the larva of Nemapogon granella, a tineid moth.
- 8A wolf spider.
- 9An eating ulcer or sore. See lupus.
- 10A willying machine, to cleanse wool or willow.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English wolf, from Old English wulf, ƿulf, from Proto-West Germanic *wulf, from Proto-Germanic *wulfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos. Doublet of lobo and lupus. Cognates Cognate with Scots wouf, North Frisian wulew, Saterland Frisian and German Low German Wulf, West Frisian, Alemannic German, and Dutch wolf, Bavarian bolf, bölf, Woif, Cimbrian and Mòcheno bolf, German Wolf, Luxembourgish Wollef, Vilamovian wuf, Yiddish וואָלף (volf), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk ulv, Faroese úlvur, Icelandic úlfur, Swedish ulf, ulv, Gothic 𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐍃 (wulfs); also Irish and Scottish Gaelic olc (“bad, evil”), Lepontic 𐌖𐌋𐌊𐌏𐌔 (ulkos), Manx olk (“bad”), Sanskrit वृक (vṛ́ka), Persian گرگ (gorg), Latgalian vylks, Latvian vìlks, Lithuanian vilkas, Belarusian воўк (vowk), Bulgarian вълк (vǎlk), Czech and Slovak vlk, Macedonian and Russian волк (volk), Polish wilk, Serbo-Croatian вук, vuk, Slovene volk, Ukrainian вовк (vovk), Albanian ujk, ulk, Latin lupus, Greek λύκος (lýkos), Hittite 𒉿𒀠𒆪𒉿𒀸, Lydian 𐤥𐤠𐤩𐤥𐤤 (walwe, “lion”), Tocharian B walkwe.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: owlf,wlof,wofl,wolff,wollf,wwolf
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wolf - 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
How do you spell "wolf"?
What does "wolf" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "wolf"?
How do you pronounce "wolf"?
What is the origin of the word "wolf"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “wolf”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-O-L-F - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /wʊlf/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “won” - see the side-by-side comparison. wolf vs won
- 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.