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fraught

UK /fɹɔːt/obsolete

fraught is spelled F-R-A-U-G-H-T. The wrong spelling people search most is frought: about 210 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Fraught is a noun meaning “The hire of a boat or ship to transport cargo”. The plural of fraught is fraughts.

How many letters and syllables are in fraught?

Letters7: F-R-A-U-G-H-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.3 times per million words; the 24,745th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, frought, about 210 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell fraught?

Fraught is spelled F-R-A-U-G-H-T. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for fraught in either form.

fraughtthe right spelling1,700 searches a month
froughto in place of a210 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is fraught?

Fraught appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 24,745th 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 fraught?

  • UK /fɹɔːt/
  • British /fɹoːt/
  • /fɹɔt/

Fraught 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). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fraught.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with fraught?

11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as fraught from its last stressed vowel (/ɔt/, British pronunciation):

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 fraught

  • fraughts present, singular, he/she/it
  • fraughting participle, present
  • fraughted participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • more fraught comparative
  • fraughter comparative, rare
  • most fraught superlative
  • fraughtest rare, superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does fraught mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteThe hire of a boat or ship to transport cargo.

  2. 2

    obsoleteMoney paid to hire a vessel for this purpose; freight.

    fraught money

  3. 3

    obsoleteThe transportation of goods, especially in a boat or ship.

  4. 4

    obsoleteA ship's cargo; freight, lading.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTwo bucketfuls.

  6. 6

    obsoleteA burden, a load.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo load (a boat, ship, or other vessel) with cargo.

  2. 2

    archaicobsoleteTo burden or load (someone or something).

  3. 3

    archaicobsoleteFollowed by with: to furnish or provide (something).

  4. 4

    ScotlandobsoleteTo hire (a vessel) to transport cargo or passengers.

  5. 5

    ScotlandobsoleteTo transport (cargo or passengers) in a vessel; to freight.

  6. 6

    obsoleteTo form the cargo or passengers of a vessel.

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteOf a boat, ship, or other vessel: laden with cargo.

  2. 2

    obsoleteFollowed by with: carrying, or charged or loaded up with (usually something negative); accompanied by; entailing.

  3. 3

    obsoleteCarrying or loaded with anxiety, fear, or stress, for example, due to complexity or difficulty; distressed; also, causing distress; distressing.

    a fraught relationship    a fraught process

  4. 4

    obsoleteFollowed by with: furnished, provided.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fraught in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchchargé (of a boat, ship, or other vessel: laden with…), plein, rempli (carrying, or charged or loaded up with (usually…), stressant, tendu (carrying or loaded with anxiety, fear, or…)
Germanbeladen, belastet, befrachtet (of a boat, ship, or other vessel: laden with…), voll (carrying, or charged or loaded up with (usually…)
Portuguesesobrecarregado (of a boat, ship, or other vessel: laden with…), repleto (carrying, or charged or loaded up with (usually…), problemático, inquietante (carrying or loaded with anxiety, fear, or…)
Spanishcargado (of a boat, ship, or other vessel: laden with…), angustiado, tenso (carrying or loaded with anxiety, fear, or…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

What to look up after fraught