margrave
/ˈmɑːɡɹeɪv/
"margrave" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“margrave” is an uncommon English word, ranked #88,582 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #88,582
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A feudal era military-administrative officer of comital rank in the Carolingian empire and some successor states, originally in charge of a border area.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | margrave |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɑːɡɹeɪv/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #88,582 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “margrave” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for margrave is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɑːɡɹeɪv/. Corpus data places it at rank #88,582 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for margrave in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle Dutch marcgrāve (modern Dutch markgraaf), cognate with Old High German marcgrāvo (modern German Markgraf), from Proto-Germanic *markō (“boundary; boundary marker”) + *grafa (“military rank”), from Latin graphio. More at mark, graft. Compare marc… The correct English form is margrave, spelled M-A-R-G-R-A-V-E.
Definition
- 1A feudal era military-administrative officer of comital rank in the Carolingian empire and some successor states, originally in charge of a border area.
- 2A hereditary ruling prince in certain feudal states of the Holy Roman Empire and elsewhere; the titular equivalent became known as marquis or marquess.
Etymology
From Middle Dutch marcgrāve (modern Dutch markgraaf), cognate with Old High German marcgrāvo (modern German Markgraf), from Proto-Germanic *markō (“boundary; boundary marker”) + *grafa (“military rank”), from Latin graphio. More at mark, graft. Compare marchion, marquis, landgrave.
This word in other languages
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 “margrave”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-R-G-R-A-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɑːɡɹeɪv/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.