fricative
/ˈfɹɪkətɪv/
"fricative" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fricative” is uncommon English (frequency #88,357 among 18,613 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #88,357
- frequency rank, English
- 18,613
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of several speech sounds produced by air flowing through a constriction in the oral cavity and typically producing a sibilant, hissing, or buzzing quality; a fricative consonant.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fricative · fricative · English
fricative · rank #88,357 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #88,357
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 18,613
- PHOTO-FINISH frogger
Nearest frequency peer: frogger (+1 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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “fricative”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- fourty
fourty
11,649 corpus weight
- freeloading
freeloading
11,647 corpus weight
- frenemies
frenemies
11,646 corpus weight
- fricative
fricative
11,644 corpus weight
- frogger
frogger
11,643 corpus weight
- Fukui
Fukui
11,638 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “fricative” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fricative |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɹɪkətɪv/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #88,357 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fricative” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
fricative is uncommon English at frequency #88,357 among 18,613 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfɹɪkətɪv/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of several speech sounds produced by air flowing through a constriction in the oral cavity and typically producing a sibilant, hissing, or buzzing quality; a fricative consonant.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for fricative in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From New Latin fricatīvus, from Latin fricāre (“to rub”). The correct English form is fricative, spelled F-R-I-C-A-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Any of several speech sounds produced by air flowing through a constriction in the oral cavity and typically producing a sibilant, hissing, or buzzing quality; a fricative consonant.
Etymology
From New Latin fricatīvus, from Latin fricāre (“to rub”).
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fricative", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.