fratricide
"fratricide" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fratricide” is uncommon English (frequency #98,135 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,135
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The killing of one's brother (or sister).
Corpus desk
Index EN-fratricide · fratricide · English
fratricide · rank #98,135 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #98,135
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH Fripp
Nearest frequency peer: Fripp (+3 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.
Long-tail ranks near “fratricide”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Forestville
Forestville
1,872 corpus weight
- fratricide
fratricide
1,866 corpus weight
- Fripp
Fripp
1,863 corpus weight
- frivolously
frivolously
1,862 corpus weight
- fusible
fusible
1,858 corpus weight
- GABAergic
GABAergic
1,855 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “fratricide” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fratricide |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #98,135 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “fratricide” in English
Rare enough to double-check
fratricide is uncommon English at frequency #98,135 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for fratricide, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French fratricide or its etymon Latin frātricīdium. The correct English form is fratricide, spelled F-R-A-T-R-I-C-I-D-E.
Definition
- 1The killing of one's brother (or sister).
- 2The intentional or unintentional killing of a comrade in arms.
- 3The undesirable situation where the separate missiles from a MIRV interfere with each other as they explode.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fratricide appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The new accusation brought by Urban against Manfred of murdering his sister-in-law's embassador – it may be observed that, tacitly, he acquits him of parricide, fratricide, and nepoticide – requires a little explanation.
Terms related to familicide include filicide (the killing of one's child or children), uxoricide (the killing of one's wife), fratricide or sororicide (the killing of one's brother or sister), avunculicide (the killing of one's uncle), and nepoticide (the killing of one's nephew).
Etymology
From Middle French fratricide or its etymon Latin frātricīdium.
This word in other languages
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 "fratricide", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).