drench
/dɹɛnt͡ʃ/
"drench" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“drench” is an uncommon English word, ranked #61,426 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #61,426
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A dose or draught of liquid medicine (especially one causing sleepiness) taken by a person; specifically, a (large) dose, or one forced or poured down the throat.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | drench |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /dɹɛnt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #61,426 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “drench” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for drench is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɹɛnt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #61,426 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 edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for drench, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English drench, drenche (“beverage, drink; cup of drink, specifically a poisoned drink; medicinal potion, specifically an emetic (?)”) [and other forms], from Old English drenċ (“drink; draft, potion; dose (of medicine, poison, etc.)”), from Pro… The correct English form is drench, spelled D-R-E-N-C-H.
Definition
- 1A dose or draught of liquid medicine (especially one causing sleepiness) taken by a person; specifically, a (large) dose, or one forced or poured down the throat.
- 2A dose or draught of liquid medicine administered to an animal.
Etymology
From Middle English drench, drenche (“beverage, drink; cup of drink, specifically a poisoned drink; medicinal potion, specifically an emetic (?)”) [and other forms], from Old English drenċ (“drink; draft, potion; dose (of medicine, poison, etc.)”), from Proto-West Germanic *dranki, from Proto-Germanic *drankiz (“drink; potion; dose”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrenǵ- (“to draw, pull; to gulp; to sip”). Doublet of drink (noun). Cognates * Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌺 (draggk), 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌺 (dragk, “beverage, drink”) * Old Dutch *dranc, (Middle Dutch dranc, modern Dutch drank (“beverage, drink”)) * Old High German tranc, tranch (Middle High German tranc, modern German Trank (“drink; potion”)) * Old Saxon dranc
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 “drench”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-R-E-N-C-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɹɛnt͡ʃ/ (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.