entice
/ɪnˈtaɪs/
"entice" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“entice” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,825 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #23,825
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To lure; to attract by arousing desire or hope.
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 | entice |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɪnˈtaɪs/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #23,825 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “entice” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for entice is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪnˈtaɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,825 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To lure; to attract by arousing desire or hope.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for entice, with forms such as "enitce", "enntice", and "entcie". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "entre", "entire", "entity", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English enticen, from Old French enticier (“to stir up or excite”), from a Vulgar Latin *intitiāre (“I set on fire”), from in- + titiō (“firebrand (tool)”), from Proto-Italic *tītjō (“heating”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *teih₁- (“to bec… The correct English form is entice, spelled E-N-T-I-C-E.
Definition
- 1To lure; to attract by arousing desire or hope.
Etymology
From Middle English enticen, from Old French enticier (“to stir up or excite”), from a Vulgar Latin *intitiāre (“I set on fire”), from in- + titiō (“firebrand (tool)”), from Proto-Italic *tītjō (“heating”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *teih₁- (“to become hot, melt or to end”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: enitce,enntice,entcie,enticce,entiec,enttice,etnice,netice
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of entice - 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 “entice”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-N-T-I-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪnˈtaɪs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “entre” - see the side-by-side comparison. entice vs entre
- 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.