harsh
/hɑɹʃ/
"harsh" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“harsh” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #5,687. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #5,687
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Unpleasantly rough to the touch or other senses.
Corpus desk
Index EN-harsh · harsh · English
harsh · rank #5,687 · 8 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #5,687
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 23,837
- PHOTO-FINISH grandmother
Nearest frequency peer: grandmother (-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 “harsh”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- genes
genes
94,317 corpus weight
- graduated
graduated
94,316 corpus weight
- grandmother
grandmother
94,315 corpus weight
- harsh
harsh
94,314 corpus weight
- heights
heights
94,313 corpus weight
- horn
horn
94,312 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “harsh” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | harsh |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /hɑɹʃ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,687 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “harsh” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around harsh (IPA /hɑɹʃ/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #5,687 among 23,837 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for harsh, with forms such as "ahrsh", "harhs", and "harrsh". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "has", "hart", "hats", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English harsk, harisk(e), hask(e), herris. Century derived the term from Old Norse harskr (whence Danish harsk (“rancid”), dialectal Norwegian hersk, Swedish härsk); the Middle English Dictionary derives it from that and Middle Low German harsch… The correct English form is harsh, spelled H-A-R-S-H.
Definition
- 1Unpleasantly rough to the touch or other senses.
- 2Severe or cruel.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how harsh appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
harsh decision
harsh penalty
Etymology
From Middle English harsk, harisk(e), hask(e), herris. Century derived the term from Old Norse harskr (whence Danish harsk (“rancid”), dialectal Norwegian hersk, Swedish härsk); the Middle English Dictionary derives it from that and Middle Low German harsch (“rough”, literally “hairy”) (whence also German harsch), from haer (“hair”), from Old Saxon hār, from Proto-West Germanic *hār; the Oxford Dictionary of English derives it from Middle Low German alone.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ahrsh
- harhs
- harrsh
- harshh
- harssh
- hasrh
- hharsh
- hrash
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of harsh - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "harsh"?
What does "harsh" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "harsh", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).
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.