Rigamarole or rigmarole?
rigamarole is a noun meaning “Alternative form of rigmarole”; rigmarole is a noun meaning “A long and complicated formal procedure”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) rigmarole is about 4.5 times as common as rigamarole.
What is the difference between rigamarole and rigmarole?
| rigamarole | rigmarole | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, adjective |
| Meaning | USAlternative form of rigmarole | A long and complicated formal procedure Characterized by rigmarole; prolix; tedious |
| Example | none recorded | Have you seen all the rigmarole you have to go through at airport security these days? |
| Forms | rigamaroles | rigmaroles |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈɹɪɡməɹəʊl/ /ˈɹɪɡməɹoʊl/ |
| In writing | about once in every 52 million words | about once in every 12 million words |
Sources: rigamarole and rigmarole in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of rigamarole and rigmarole
rigamarole
- 1
USAlternative form of rigmarole
rigmarole
- 1
A long and complicated formal procedure
Have you seen all the rigmarole you have to go through at airport security these days?
- 2
Characterized by rigmarole; prolix; tedious
- 3
datedConfused and incoherent talk; nonsense
If you are alluding to Dostoevski’s worst novels, then, indeed, I dislike intensely The Karamazov Brothers and the ghastly Crime and Punishment rigmarole
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, rigamarole or rigmarole?
rigamarole appears about once in every 52 million words; rigmarole about once in every 12 million words.
rigamarole about once in every 52 million wordsrigmarole about once in every 12 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search rigamarole vs rigmarole?
“rigamarole vs rigmarole” is searched about 590 times a month on Google and 290 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“rigmarole vs rigamarole”, “rigamarole or rigmarole”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.