heroic
/hɪˈɹəʊ.ɪk/
"heroic" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heroic” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,053 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #9,053
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of or relating to a hero or heroine; supremely noble.
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 | heroic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /hɪˈɹəʊ.ɪk/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #9,053 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “heroic” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for heroic is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /hɪˈɹəʊ.ɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,053 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for heroic, with forms such as "ehroic", "heoric", and "herioc". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "heron", "heroin", "heroine", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Partly from Middle French heroïque and partly from Latin hērōicus. By surface analysis, hero + -ic. The correct English form is heroic, spelled H-E-R-O-I-C.
Definition
- 1Of or relating to a hero or heroine; supremely noble.
- 2Courageous; displaying heroism.
- 3Of a size larger than life, but less than colossal.
Etymology
Partly from Middle French heroïque and partly from Latin hērōicus. By surface analysis, hero + -ic.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ehroic,heoric,herioc,heroci,heroicc,herroic,hheroic,hreoic
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of heroic - 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
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Using “heroic”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-E-R-O-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /hɪˈɹəʊ.ɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “heron” - see the side-by-side comparison. heroic vs heron
- 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.