ghetto
/ˈɡɛ.təʊ/
"ghetto" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ghetto” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,389 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,389
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.)
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 | ghetto |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɡɛ.təʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #11,389 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ghetto” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ghetto is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɡɛ.təʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,389 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for ghetto, with forms such as "gehtto", "gghetto", and "gheto". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "grotto", "Guetta", "Ghent", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from the name of the Venetian Ghetto, whose etymology and original source language is uncertain. Compare Italian ghetto. The correct English form is ghetto, spelled G-H-E-T-T-O.
Definition
- 1An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.)
- 2An (often impoverished) area of a city inhabited predominantly by members of a specific nationality, ethnicity, or race.
- 3An area in which people who are distinguished by sharing something other than ethnicity concentrate or are concentrated.
- 4An isolated, self-contained, segregated subsection, area or field of interest; often of minority or specialist interest.
Etymology
Borrowed from the name of the Venetian Ghetto, whose etymology and original source language is uncertain. Compare Italian ghetto.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: gehtto,gghetto,gheto,ghetot,ghhetto,ghteto,hgetto
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ghetto - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “ghetto”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-H-E-T-T-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɡɛ.təʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “grotto” - see the side-by-side comparison. ghetto vs grotto
- 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.