drench
/dɹɛnt͡ʃ/
"drench" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“drench” is uncommon English (frequency #61,426 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,426
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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.
Corpus desk
Index EN-drench · drench · English
drench · rank #61,426 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #61,426
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH Dothan
Nearest frequency peer: Dothan (-1 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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “drench”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- dolt
dolt
38,578 corpus weight
- donk
donk
38,577 corpus weight
- Dothan
Dothan
38,576 corpus weight
- drench
drench
38,575 corpus weight
- Drexler
Drexler
38,574 corpus weight
- dross
dross
38,572 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “drench” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| 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
Rare enough to double-check
drench is uncommon English at frequency #61,426 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /dɹɛnt͡ʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how drench appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[T]hey need not carry ſuch an unvvorthy ſuſpicion over the Preachers of Gods vvord, as to tutor their unſoundneſſe vvith the Abcie of a Liturgy, or to diet their ignorance, and vvant of care, vvith the limited draught of a Mattin, and even ſong drench.
Let ſuch bethink them, if the ſleepy drench / Of that forgetful Lake benumme not ſtill, / That in our proper motion we aſcend / Up to our native ſeat: deſcent and fall / To us is adverſe.
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.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "drench", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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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.