industrious
/ɪnˈdʌstɹi.əs/
"industrious" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“industrious” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #37,513 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #37,513
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Hard-working and persistent.
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 | industrious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɪnˈdʌstɹi.əs/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #37,513 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “industrious” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for industrious is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪnˈdʌstɹi.əs/. Corpus data places it at rank #37,513 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Hard-working and persistent.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for industrious, with forms such as "idnustrious", "inddustrious", and "indsutrious". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "industries", "illustrious", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French industrieux, from Late Latin industriosus (“diligent, active, industrious”), from Latin industria (“diligence, industry”); see industry. The correct English form is industrious, spelled I-N-D-U-S-T-R-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Hard-working and persistent.
Etymology
From Middle French industrieux, from Late Latin industriosus (“diligent, active, industrious”), from Latin industria (“diligence, industry”); see industry.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: idnustrious,inddustrious,indsutrious,indusrtious,indusstrious,industirous,industriosu,industriouss,industriuos,industroius,industrrious,industtrious,indutsrious,inndustrious,inudstrious,nidustrious
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of industrious - 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
How do you spell "industrious"?
What does "industrious" mean?
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Using “industrious”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-N-D-U-S-T-R-I-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪnˈdʌstɹi.əs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “industries” - see the side-by-side comparison. industrious vs industries
- 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.