charade
/ʃəˈɹɑːd/
"charade" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“charade” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #32,729 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #32,729
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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.
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) |
Where “charade” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for charade is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃəˈɹɑːd/. Corpus data places it at rank #32,729 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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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Using “charade”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-A-R-A-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃəˈɹɑːd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “chard” - see the side-by-side comparison. charade vs chard
- 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.