fret
/fɹɛt/
"fret" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fret” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #20,362 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #20,362
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Especially when describing animals: to consume, devour, or eat.
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 | fret |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /fɹɛt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #20,362 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fret” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fret is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɹɛt/. Corpus data places it at rank #20,362 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for fret, with forms such as "fert", "ffret", and "frett". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fry", "fro", "FTE", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English frēten (“to eat (at), corrode, destroy, annoy”), from Old English fretan (“to eat up, devour; to fret; to break, burst”), from Proto-West Germanic *fraetan, from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną (“to consume, devour, eat up”), from Proto-Germani… The correct English form is fret, spelled F-R-E-T.
Definition
- 1Especially when describing animals: to consume, devour, or eat.
- 2To chafe or irritate; to worry.
- 3To make rough, to agitate or disturb; to cause to ripple.
- 4In the form fret out: to squander, to waste.
- 5To gnaw; to consume, to eat away.
- 6To mine by agitating or eating away at (ore in the bank of a river).
- 7To be chafed or irritated; to be angry or vexed; to utter peevish expressions through irritation or worry.
- 8To be worn away; to chafe; to fray.
- 9To be anxious, to worry.
- 10To be agitated; to rankle; to be in violent commotion.
- 11To have secondary fermentation (fermentation occurring after the conversion of sugar to alcohol in beers and wine) take place.
Etymology
From Middle English frēten (“to eat (at), corrode, destroy, annoy”), from Old English fretan (“to eat up, devour; to fret; to break, burst”), from Proto-West Germanic *fraetan, from Proto-Germanic *fraetaną (“to consume, devour, eat up”), from Proto-Germanic *fra- (“for-, prefix meaning ‘completely, fully’”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pro- (“forward, toward”)) + *etaną (“to eat”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”)). The senses meaning “to chafe, rub” could also be due to sound-association with Anglo-Norman *freiter (modern dialectal French fretter), from Vulgar Latin *frictāre, frequentative of Latin fricāre, from fricō (“to chafe, rub”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- (“to cut”); compare Old French froter (modern French frotter). The chief difficulty is the lack of evidence of the Old French word. Cognates *Dutch vreten, fretten (“to devour, hog, wolf”) *Low German freten (“to eat up”) *German fressen (“to devour, gobble up, guzzle”) *Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraitan, “to devour”) *Swedish fräta (“to eat away, corrode, fret”) *Danish fråse (“to gorge”)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: fert,ffret,frett,frret,frte,rfet
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fret - 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
How do you spell "fret"?
What does "fret" mean?
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Using “fret”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-R-E-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fɹɛt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fry” - see the side-by-side comparison. fret vs fry
- 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.