forgery
/ˈfɔː.dʒəɹ.ɪ/
"forgery" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“forgery” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #22,676 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #22,676
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The act of forging metal into shape.
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 | forgery |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɔː.dʒəɹ.ɪ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #22,676 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “forgery” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for forgery is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɔː.dʒəɹ.ɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #22,676 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for forgery, with forms such as "fforgery", "fogrery", and "foregry". 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. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "former", "forget", "formerly", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Recorded since 1574; from forge + -ery, from Middle English forgen, via Anglo-Norman forger, from Old French forgier, from Latin fabricārī (“to frame, construct, fabricate”), itself from fabrica (“workshop; construction”), from faber (“workman, smith”). (fa… The correct English form is forgery, spelled F-O-R-G-E-R-Y.
Definition
- 1The act of forging metal into shape.
- 2The act of forging, fabricating, or producing falsely; especially the crime of fraudulently making or altering a writing or signature purporting to be made by another, the false making or material alteration of or addition to a written instrument for the purpose of deceit and fraud.
- 3That which is forged, fabricated, falsely devised or counterfeited.
- 4An invention, creation.
Etymology
Recorded since 1574; from forge + -ery, from Middle English forgen, via Anglo-Norman forger, from Old French forgier, from Latin fabricārī (“to frame, construct, fabricate”), itself from fabrica (“workshop; construction”), from faber (“workman, smith”). (fake): Compare typologically Russian кова́рный (kovárnyj), кова́рство (kovárstvo), ко́зни (kózni) (akin to кова́ть (kovátʹ), ку́зница (kúznica)).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: fforgery,fogrery,foregry,forgerry,forgeryy,forgeyr,forggery,forgrey,forrgery,frogery,ofrgery
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of forgery - 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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Using “forgery”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-R-G-E-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɔː.dʒəɹ.ɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “former” - see the side-by-side comparison. forgery vs former
- 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.