massacre
/ˈmæs.ə.kə(ɹ)/
"massacre" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“massacre” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,169 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,169
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The killing of a considerable number (usually limited to people) where little or no resistance can be made, with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and/or contrary to civilized norms.
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 | massacre |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmæs.ə.kə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #8,169 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “massacre” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for massacre is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmæs.ə.kə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,169 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 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for massacre, with forms such as "amssacre", "masacre", and "masascre". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "massage", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 1580, from Middle French massacre, from Old French macacre, marcacre, macecre, macecle (“slaughterhouse, butchery”), usually thought to be deverbal from Old French macecrer, macecler (“to slaughter”), though the noun seems to be attested somewhat earlier. I… The correct English form is massacre, spelled M-A-S-S-A-C-R-E.
Definition
- 1The killing of a considerable number (usually limited to people) where little or no resistance can be made, with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and/or contrary to civilized norms.
- 2Murder.
- 3Any overwhelming defeat, as in a game or sport.
Etymology
1580, from Middle French massacre, from Old French macacre, marcacre, macecre, macecle (“slaughterhouse, butchery”), usually thought to be deverbal from Old French macecrer, macecler (“to slaughter”), though the noun seems to be attested somewhat earlier. It is also found in Medieval Latin mazacrium (“massacre, slaughter, killing”, also “the head of a newly killed stag”). Further origin disputed: * From Latin macellum (“butcher shop”). * From Vulgar Latin *matteuculāre, from *matteuca (cf. massue), from Late Latin mattea, mattia, from Latin mateola. * From Middle Low German *matskelen (“to massacre”) (compare German metzeln (“massacre”)), frequentative of matsken, matzgen (“to cut, hew”), from Proto-West Germanic *maitan, from Proto-Germanic *maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *mei- (“small”). Akin to Old High German meizan (“to cut”) among others. * Note also Arabic مَجْزَرَة (majzara), originally “spot where animals are slaughtered”, now also “massacre”, and in Maghrebi Arabic “slaughterhouse”. Derived from جَزَرَ (jazara, “to cut, slaughter”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: amssacre,masacre,masascre,massaccre,massacer,massacrre,massarce,masscare,mmassacre,msasacre
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of massacre - 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 “massacre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-S-S-A-C-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmæs.ə.kə(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “massage” - see the side-by-side comparison. massacre vs massage
- 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.