brutish
/ˈbɹuːt.ɪʃ/
"brutish" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“brutish” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #48,636 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #48,636
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of, or in the manner of a brute
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 | brutish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈbɹuːt.ɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #48,636 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “brutish” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for brutish is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɹuːt.ɪʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #48,636 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for brutish, with forms such as "bbrutish", "brrutish", and "brtuish". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "Brutus", "brush", "bruise", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From brute + -ish. The correct English form is brutish, spelled B-R-U-T-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1Of, or in the manner of a brute
- 2Bestial; lacking human sensibility
Etymology
From brute + -ish.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbrutish,brrutish,brtuish,bruitsh,brutihs,brutishh,brutissh,brutsih,bruttish,burtish,rbutish
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of brutish - 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
How do you spell "brutish"?
What does "brutish" mean?
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Using “brutish”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-R-U-T-I-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɹuːt.ɪʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Brutus” - see the side-by-side comparison. brutish vs Brutus
- 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.