ferocious
/fəˈɹəʊʃəs/
"ferocious" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ferocious” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #22,084. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #22,084
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Marked by extreme and violent energy.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ferocious · ferocious · English
ferocious · rank #22,084 · 12 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-MID #22,084
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH fend
Nearest frequency peer: fend (-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 “ferocious”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- fallacy
fallacy
77,920 corpus weight
- feeble
feeble
77,919 corpus weight
- fend
fend
77,918 corpus weight
- ferocious
ferocious
77,917 corpus weight
- fifties
fifties
77,916 corpus weight
- flake
flake
77,914 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “ferocious” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ferocious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /fəˈɹəʊʃəs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #22,084 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ferocious” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around ferocious (IPA /fəˈɹəʊʃəs/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #22,084 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for ferocious, with forms such as "efrocious", "feorcious", and "fercoious". 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. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Taken from Latin ferōx (“wild, bold, savage, fierce”) + -ous. The correct English form is ferocious, spelled F-E-R-O-C-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Marked by extreme and violent energy.
- 2Extreme or intense.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ferocious appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
But it seemed to me that there were few faces like his, with the ferocious profile that brought to mind the Latin word rapax or one of Rouault's crazed death-dealing arbitrary kings.
Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.
Etymology
Taken from Latin ferōx (“wild, bold, savage, fierce”) + -ous.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- efrocious
- feorcious
- fercoious
- feroccious
- ferociosu
- ferociouss
- ferociuos
- ferocoius
- feroicous
- ferrocious
- fferocious
- freocious
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ferocious - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ferocious", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "ferocious". Here's where to go from here.
- 12 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #22,084 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "F" letter cohort. F–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.