woman
/ˈwʊm.ən/
"woman" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“woman” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #452. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #452
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An adult female human.
Corpus desk
Index EN-woman · woman · English
woman · rank #452 · 7 variants · 19 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #452
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 19 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH wait
Nearest frequency peer: wait (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “woman”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- r
r
99,552 corpus weight
- series
series
99,551 corpus weight
- wait
wait
99,550 corpus weight
- woman
woman
99,549 corpus weight
- ask
ask
99,548 corpus weight
- community
community
99,547 corpus weight
What this shows “woman” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | woman |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwʊm.ən/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #452 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “woman”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around woman (IPA /ˈwʊm.ən/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #452 among 1,759 “W” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for woman, with forms such as "owman", "wmoan", and "woamn". 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 19 confusable-pair relationships, "won", "worn", "womb", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English womman, from earlier wimman, wifman, from Old English wīfmann (“woman”, literally “female person”), a compound of wīf (“woman, female”, whence English wife) + mann (“person, human being”, whence English man). For details on the pronuncia… The correct English form is woman, spelled W-O-M-A-N.
Definition
- 1An adult female human.
- 2All female humans collectively; womankind.
- 3A female person, usually an adult: a (generally adult) female sentient being, whether human, supernatural, elf, alien, etc.
- 4A wife (or sometimes a fiancée or girlfriend).
- 5A female person who is extremely fond of or devoted to a specified type of thing. (Used as the last element of a compound.)
- 6A female attendant or servant.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how woman appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
But this woman is a nice German woman that fell on the ice and sprained her ankle last winter, and we saw to her well as we could till she got better.
Dr. J. H. Vincent, the great lecturer, says that a man's greatness consists in his courage; his inherent nobleness; his noble deeds, great exploits, and benefits to the world; but that behind every great man is a great woman - his mother.
Etymology
From Middle English womman, from earlier wimman, wifman, from Old English wīfmann (“woman”, literally “female person”), a compound of wīf (“woman, female”, whence English wife) + mann (“person, human being”, whence English man). For details on the pronunciation and spelling history, see the usage notes below. Cognate with Scots woman, weman (“woman”), Saterland Frisian Wieuwmoanske (“female person, female human, woman”). Similar constructions can be found in West Frisian frommes (“woman, girl”) (from frou and minske, literally "woman human"). Further information on vocalic development The current pronunciation of the first vowel of the singular began to appear in western England in the 13th century under the rounding influence of the w, though the older pronunciation with /i/ (→ modern /ɪ/) remained in use into the 15th century. Although the vowel of the plural was sometimes also altered to /u/ (→ modern /ʊ/) beginning in the 14th century, the pronunciation with /ɪ/ ultimately won out there, possibly under the influence of pairs like foot–feet. However, some speakers (especially of New Zealand English or South African English) have either retained or reinnovated the pronunciation of the plural with /ʊ/. The modern spelling women for the plural is due to influence of the singular; it is attested from the 15th century. For a time in the 16th and 17th centuries, the pronunciation of the singular sometimes drifted even further back towards /uː/ or /ɔː~oː/ (→ modern /oʊ~əʊ/) and the plural sometimes drifted even further forward towards /iː/, leading to comparisons of the words to "woe man" or "we men".)
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- owman
- wmoan
- woamn
- womann
- womman
- womna
- wwoman
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of woman - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "woman", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).