MRSA
/ˈɛm.ɑːɹ.ɛs.eɪ/
"mrsa" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“MRSA” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #41,266. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #41,266
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Initialism of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; a bacterium responsible for serious infections.
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 | MRSA |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɛm.ɑːɹ.ɛs.eɪ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #41,266 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “MRSA” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around MRSA (IPA /ˈɛm.ɑːɹ.ɛs.eɪ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #41,266 among 36,575 “M” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Initialism of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; a bacterium responsible for serious infections.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for MRSA, with forms such as "mmrsa", "mrrsa", and "mrssa". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "MS", "MSM", "MSG", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is MRSA, spelled M-R-S-A.
Definition
- 1Initialism of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; a bacterium responsible for serious infections.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- mmrsa
- mrrsa
- mrssa
- msra
- rmsa
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of MRSA - 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 "MRSA"?
What does "MRSA" mean?
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Using “MRSA”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-R-S-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɛm.ɑːɹ.ɛs.eɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “MS” - see the side-by-side comparison. MRSA vs MS
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Same frequency band
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.