yellow
/ˈjɛl.əʊ/
"yellow" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“yellow” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #2,097. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #2,097
- frequency rank, English
- 366
- “Y” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The color of sunflower petals and lemons; the color obtained by mixing green and red light, or by subtracting blue from white light; the color evoked by light of wavelength around 580 nm; one of th...
Corpus desk
Index EN-yellow · yellow · English
yellow · rank #2,097 · 7 variants · 3 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #2,097
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 366
- PHOTO-FINISH writer
Nearest frequency peer: writer (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “yellow”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- update
update
97,907 corpus weight
- user
user
97,906 corpus weight
- writer
writer
97,905 corpus weight
- yellow
yellow
97,904 corpus weight
- younger
younger
97,903 corpus weight
- ancient
ancient
97,902 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “yellow” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | yellow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈjɛl.əʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,097 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “yellow” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around yellow (IPA /ˈjɛl.əʊ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,097 among 366 “Y” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for yellow, with forms such as "eyllow", "yelloww", and "yellwo". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "yellows", "yell", "Yellen", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English yelwe, yelou, from Old English ġeolwe, oblique form of Old English ġeolu, from Proto-West Germanic *gelu, from Proto-Germanic *gelwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃wós, from *ǵʰelh₃- (“gleam, yellow”). Cognate with Scots yella (“yello… The correct English form is yellow, spelled Y-E-L-L-O-W.
Definition
- 1The color of sunflower petals and lemons; the color obtained by mixing green and red light, or by subtracting blue from white light; the color evoked by light of wavelength around 580 nm; one of the three primary colors in subtractive color systems.
- 2The middle light in a set of three traffic lights, the lighting of which indicates that drivers should stop short of the intersection if it is safe to do so.
- 3One of the color balls used in snooker, with a value of 2 points.
- 4One of two groups of object balls, or a ball from that group, as used in the principally British version of pool that makes use of unnumbered balls (the yellow(s) and red(s)); contrast stripes and solids in the originally American version with numbered balls).
- 5A yellow card.
- 6Any of various pierid butterflies of the subfamily Coliadinae, especially the yellow colored species. Compare sulphur.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how yellow appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw—not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.
Red No. 3, red No. 40, blue No. 2 and green No. 3 all have been linked with cancer or tumors in animals. Other sources say red No. 40 and yellow No. 5 and No. 6 contain or may be contaminated with known carcinogens.
Etymology
From Middle English yelwe, yelou, from Old English ġeolwe, oblique form of Old English ġeolu, from Proto-West Germanic *gelu, from Proto-Germanic *gelwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃wós, from *ǵʰelh₃- (“gleam, yellow”). Cognate with Scots yella (“yellow”), North Frisian gööl, güül (“yellow”), Saterland Frisian jeel (“yellow”), West Frisian giel (“yellow”), Cimbrian gel, ghéel (“yellow”), Dutch geel (“yellow”), Dutch Low Saxon gael, gel (“yellow”), German gelb, gehl (“yellow”), German Low German gel, geel, gęl, gäl (“yellow”), Luxembourgish giel (“yellow”), Vilamovian gaoł (“yellow”), Yiddish געל (gel), געלב (gelb, “yellow”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish gul (“yellow”), Faroese and Icelandic gulur (“yellow”). Compare also Welsh gell (“bay, tawny”), Latin helvus (“dull yellow”), Irish geal (“white, bright”), Italian giallo (“yellow”) Lithuanian žalias (“green”), Ancient Greek χλωρός (khlōrós, “light green”), Persian زرد (zard, “yellow”), Sanskrit हरि (hari, “greenish-yellow”), Russian жёлтый (žóltyj, “yellow”), Russian зелёный (zeljónyj, “green”). The verb is from Middle English yelwen, ȝalowen, ȝolewen, from Old English ġeolwian, from the adjective.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- eyllow
- yelloww
- yellwo
- yelolw
- yelow
- ylelow
- yyellow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of yellow - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "yellow", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "yellow". Here's where to go from here.
- "yellow" maps to 3 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "yellows". View pair
- 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #2,097 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "Y" letter cohort. Y–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.