Wolfe
"wolfe" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Wolfe” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #17,060 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #17,060
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 16
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A surname transferred from the given name of English and German origin, a variant of Wolf.
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 | Wolfe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #17,060 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Wolfe” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Wolfe is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun. Corpus data places it at rank #17,060 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Wolfe, with forms such as "owlfe", "wlofe", and "wofle". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "wore", "woof", "wove", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is Wolfe, spelled W-O-L-F-E.
Definition
- 1A surname transferred from the given name of English and German origin, a variant of Wolf.
- 2An unincorporated community in Mercer County, West Virginia, United States.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: owlfe,wlofe,wofle,wolef,wolffe,wollfe,wwolfe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Wolfe - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “Wolfe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-O-L-F-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “wore” - see the side-by-side comparison. Wolfe vs wore
- 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.