frightened
/ˈfɹaɪtn̩d/
"frightened" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“frightened” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,550 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #10,550
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Afraid; suffering from fear.
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 | frightened |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈfɹaɪtn̩d/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #10,550 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “frightened” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for frightened is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɹaɪtn̩d/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,550 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Afraid; suffering from fear.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for frightened, with forms such as "ffrightened", "firghtened", and "frgihtened". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "frighten", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is frightened, spelled F-R-I-G-H-T-E-N-E-D.
Definition
- 1Afraid; suffering from fear.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffrightened,firghtened,frgihtened,frigghtened,frighetned,frighhtened,frighteend,frightende,frightenedd,frightenned,frightneed,frighttened,frigthened,frihgtened,frrightened,rfightened
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of frightened - 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 "frightened"?
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Using “frightened”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-R-I-G-H-T-E-N-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɹaɪtn̩d/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “frighten” - see the side-by-side comparison. frightened vs frighten
- 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.