charade
/ʃəˈɹɑːd/
"charade" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“charade” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #32,729. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #32,729
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.
Corpus desk
Index EN-charade · charade · English
charade · rank #32,729 · 10 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-MID #32,729
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH chinook
Nearest frequency peer: chinook (+2 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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “charade”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- carotid
carotid
67,278 corpus weight
- Catania
Catania
67,277 corpus weight
- Cath
Cath
67,276 corpus weight
- charade
charade
67,272 corpus weight
- chinook
chinook
67,270 corpus weight
- CME
CME
67,268 corpus weight
What this shows “charade” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | charade |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃəˈɹɑːd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #32,729 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “charade”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around charade (IPA /ʃəˈɹɑːd/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #32,729 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for charade, with forms such as "cahrade", "ccharade", and "chaarde". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "chard", "charge", "Charlie", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French charade, charrade (“prattle, idle conversation; a kind of riddle”), probably from Occitan charrada (“conversation; chatter”), from charrar (“to chat; to chatter”) + -ada. As a round of the game, originally a clipping of acting charade but now us… The correct English form is charade, spelled C-H-A-R-A-D-E.
Definition
- 1A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.
- 2A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.
- 3A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting.
- 4A deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use.
- 5A form of wordplay where several words are placed together to form a new word or part thereof.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how charade appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
CHARADE, a trifling species of composition, or quasi-literary form of amusement, which may perhaps be best defined as a punning enigma propounded in a series of descriptions. A word is taken of two or more syllables, each forming a distinct word; each of these is described in verse or prose, as aptly and enigmatically as possible; and the same process is…
...The most popular form of this amusement is the acted charade, in which the meaning of the different syllables is acted out on the stage, the audience being left to guess each syllable and thus, combining the meaning of all the syllables, the whole word. A brilliant example of the acted charade is described in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.
Etymology
From French charade, charrade (“prattle, idle conversation; a kind of riddle”), probably from Occitan charrada (“conversation; chatter”), from charrar (“to chat; to chatter”) + -ada. As a round of the game, originally a clipping of acting charade but now usually understood and formed as a back-formation from charades.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- cahrade
- ccharade
- chaarde
- charadde
- charaed
- chardae
- charrade
- chharade
- chraade
- hcarade
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of charade - 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 "charade", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).