arresting
/əˈɹɛstɪŋ/
"arresting" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“arresting” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,886 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #14,886
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - striking, gripping
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | arresting |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /əˈɹɛstɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #14,886 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “arresting” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for arresting is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈɹɛstɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,886 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "striking, gripping".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for arresting, with forms such as "arersting", "aresting", and "arresitng". 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. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is arresting, spelled A-R-R-E-S-T-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1striking, gripping
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: arersting,aresting,arresitng,arressting,arrestign,arrestingg,arrestinng,arrestnig,arrestting,arretsing,arrseting,raresting
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of arresting - 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 “arresting”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-R-R-E-S-T-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /əˈɹɛstɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.