woman
/ˈwʊm.ən/
"woman" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“woman” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #452 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #452
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An adult female human.
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) |
Where “woman” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for woman is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈwʊm.ən/. Corpus data places it at rank #452 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 6 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 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.
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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Using “woman”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-O-M-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwʊm.ən/ (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. woman 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.