frain
obsolete
frain is spelled F-R-A-I-N: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 23 million words in written English, the 145,125th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, frain means “To ask, inquire” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in frain?
| Letters | 5: F-R-A-I-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 23 million words; the 145,125th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is frain?
Frain appears about once in every 23 million words in written English, the 145,125th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce frain?
Frain has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What rhymes with frain?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as frain.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: infra.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of frain
- frains present, singular, he/she/it
- fraining participle, present
- frained participle, past
- frein
- frane
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does frain mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo ask, inquire.
Theyr myndes disdayne: Gods actes to frain …
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does frain come from?
From Middle English fraynen, freinen (“to ask”), from Old English freġnan, friġnan (“to ask, inquire, learn”), from Proto-West Germanic *fregnan, from Proto-Germanic *frehnaną (“to ask”), from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask, woo”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).