diarrhea
/ˌdaɪ.əˈɹiː.ə/
"diarrhea" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“diarrhea” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,902 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,902
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A gastrointestinal disorder characterized by frequent and very soft or watery bowel movements.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | diarrhea |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌdaɪ.əˈɹiː.ə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #13,902 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “diarrhea” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for diarrhea is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌdaɪ.əˈɹiː.ə/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,902 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 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for diarrhea, with forms such as "dairrhea", "ddiarrhea", and "diarhea". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English diaria, from Middle French diarrie (French diarrhée), from Late Latin diarrhoea, from Ancient Greek διάρροια (diárrhoia, “through-flowing”), from διά (diá, “through”) + ῥέω (rhéō, “flow”). By surface analysis, dia- + -rrhea. Spelling lat… The correct English form is diarrhea, spelled D-I-A-R-R-H-E-A.
Definition
- 1A gastrointestinal disorder characterized by frequent and very soft or watery bowel movements.
- 2The watery or very soft excrement that comes from such bowel movements.
Etymology
From Middle English diaria, from Middle French diarrie (French diarrhée), from Late Latin diarrhoea, from Ancient Greek διάρροια (diárrhoia, “through-flowing”), from διά (diá, “through”) + ῥέω (rhéō, “flow”). By surface analysis, dia- + -rrhea. Spelling later altered to resemble the word's Latin and Greek roots. Displaced native Old English ūtsiht (literally “straining out”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: dairrhea,ddiarrhea,diarhea,diarhrea,diarreha,diarrhae,diarrhhea,dirarhea,idarrhea
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of diarrhea - 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 “diarrhea”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-I-A-R-R-H-E-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌdaɪ.əˈɹiː.ə/ (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.