PTSD
"ptsd" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“PTSD” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,195 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,195
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Initialism of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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 | PTSD |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #14,195 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “PTSD” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for PTSD is 4 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #14,195 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Initialism of post-traumatic stress disorder.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for PTSD, with forms such as "pptsd", "pstd", and "ptds". 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, "pus", "push", "puts", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is PTSD, spelled P-T-S-D.
Definition
- 1Initialism of post-traumatic stress disorder.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: pptsd,pstd,ptds,ptsdd,ptssd,pttsd,tpsd
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of PTSD - 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 “PTSD”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-T-S-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “pus” - see the side-by-side comparison. PTSD vs pus
- 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.