murder
/ˈmɜːdə(ɹ)/
"murder" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“murder” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,462 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,462
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 14
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The crime of killing a person unlawfully, especially with predetermination.
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 | murder |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɜːdə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #1,462 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “murder” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for murder is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɜːdə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,462 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for murder, with forms such as "mmurder", "mruder", and "mudrer". 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 14 confusable-pair relationships, "muster", "Muriel", "murmur", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English murder, murdre, mourdre, alteration of earlier murthre (“murder”) (see murther), from Old English morþor (“secret slaying, unlawful killing”) and Old English myrþra (“murder, homicide”), both from Proto-West Germanic *morþr, from Proto-G… The correct English form is murder, spelled M-U-R-D-E-R.
Definition
- 1The crime of killing a person unlawfully, especially with predetermination.
- 2The crime of killing a person unlawfully, especially with predetermination.
- 3The act of killing a person (or sometimes another being) unlawfully, especially with predetermination
- 4Something terrible to endure.
- 5A group of crows; the collective noun for crows.
- 6Something remarkable or impressive.
- 7a murderer
Etymology
From Middle English murder, murdre, mourdre, alteration of earlier murthre (“murder”) (see murther), from Old English morþor (“secret slaying, unlawful killing”) and Old English myrþra (“murder, homicide”), both from Proto-West Germanic *morþr, from Proto-Germanic *murþrą (“death, killing, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥tro- (“killing”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *mor-, *mr̥- (“to die”). Akin to Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌸𐍂 (maurþr, “murder”), Old High German mord (“murder”), Old Norse morð (“murder”), Old English myrþrian (“to murder”) and morþ. The -d- in the Middle English form may have been influenced in part by Anglo-Norman murdre, from Old French murdre, from Medieval Latin murdrum (whence the English doublet of murdrum), from Frankish *morþr, *murþr (“murder”), from the same Germanic root, though this may also have been wholly the result of internal development (compare burden, from burthen). (crows): Attested at least since 1475.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: mmurder,mruder,mudrer,murdder,murderr,murdre,muredr,murrder,umrder
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of murder - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “murder”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-U-R-D-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɜːdə(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “muster” - see the side-by-side comparison. murder vs muster
- 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.