murderous
/ˈmɜːdəɹəs/
"murderous" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“murderous” has 13 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #17,906. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #17,906
- frequency rank, English
- 36,575
- “M” headwords
- 13
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of, characterized by, or pertaining to murder or murderers.
Corpus desk
Index EN-murderous · murderous · English
murderous · rank #17,906 · 13 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-MID #17,906
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-HIGH 13 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 36,575
- PHOTO-FINISH Motorola
Nearest frequency peer: Motorola (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “murderous”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- morphine
morphine
82,098 corpus weight
- motherhood
motherhood
82,097 corpus weight
- Motorola
Motorola
82,096 corpus weight
- murderous
murderous
82,095 corpus weight
- NB
NB
82,093 corpus weight
- nirvana
nirvana
82,092 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “murderous” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | murderous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈmɜːdəɹəs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #17,906 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “murderous” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 13 spelling variants around murderous (IPA /ˈmɜːdəɹəs/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #17,906 among 36,575 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for murderous, with forms such as "mmurderous", "mruderous", and "mudrerous". 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. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From murder + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns denoting possession or presence of a quality). The correct English form is murderous, spelled M-U-R-D-E-R-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Of, characterized by, or pertaining to murder or murderers.
- 2Of a person: intending or likely to commit murder; bloodthirsty, homicidal.
- 3Of an object: used to commit murder; capable of causing death; deadly, fatal.
- 4Very difficult.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how murderous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Aſſaſſinat: m. A murther, or murtherous act committed for gaine, or in hope of a revvard; alſo, a ſuddaine aſſault, made of ſet purpoſe, and vvith a murtherous intent, although th' aſſaulted be not killed.
Every time I heard the bell strike, that denotes the time on board a ship, I full of terror counted the hours until four o'clock; feeling sure that when that hour came, my enemies would begin their murderous attack.
Etymology
From murder + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns denoting possession or presence of a quality).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- mmurderous
- mruderous
- mudrerous
- murdderous
- murdeorus
- murderosu
- murderouss
- murderrous
- murderuos
- murdreous
- muredrous
- murrderous
- umrderous
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of murderous - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What does "murderous" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "murderous", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (13 here; floor ≥5).
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.