irate
/aɪˈɹeɪt/
"irate" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“irate” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #37,988 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #37,988
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Extremely angry; wrathful; enraged.
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 | irate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /aɪˈɹeɪt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #37,988 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “irate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for irate is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /aɪˈɹeɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #37,988 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Extremely angry; wrathful; enraged.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for irate, with forms such as "iarte", "iraet", and "iratte". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "ire", "Irene", "IRA", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin īrātus (“angered, angry”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from īrāscor (“to be angry”), from īra (“anger, wrath”). The correct English form is irate, spelled I-R-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1Extremely angry; wrathful; enraged.
Etymology
From Latin īrātus (“angered, angry”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from īrāscor (“to be angry”), from īra (“anger, wrath”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iarte,iraet,iratte,irrate,irtae,riate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of irate - 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 “irate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-R-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /aɪˈɹeɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ire” - see the side-by-side comparison. irate vs ire
- 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.