rabies
/ˈɹeɪ.biːz/
"rabies" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rabies” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #21,323. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #21,323
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 12
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An infectious disease caused by species of Lyssavirus that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals and people, characterised by abnormal behaviour such as biting, excitement, aggressivene...
Corpus desk
Index EN-rabies · rabies · English
rabies · rank #21,323 · 8 variants · 12 confusables
- FREQ-MID #21,323
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 12 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH quantify
Nearest frequency peer: quantify (-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 “rabies”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
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78,679 corpus weight
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78,678 corpus weight
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78,677 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “rabies” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | rabies |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹeɪ.biːz/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #21,323 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rabies” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around rabies (IPA /ˈɹeɪ.biːz/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #21,323 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Dominant gloss: "An infectious disease caused by species of Lyssavirus that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals and people, characterised by abnormal behaviour such as biting, excitement, aggressivene...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for rabies, with forms such as "arbies", "rabbies", and "rabeis". 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 12 confusable-pair relationships, "rates", "races", "rains", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin rabiēs (“rage, madness, fury”). Doublet of rage. The correct English form is rabies, spelled R-A-B-I-E-S.
Definition
- 1An infectious disease caused by species of Lyssavirus that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals and people, characterised by abnormal behaviour such as biting, excitement, aggressiveness, and dementia, followed by paralysis and death.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin rabiēs (“rage, madness, fury”). Doublet of rage.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- arbies
- rabbies
- rabeis
- rabiess
- rabise
- raibes
- rbaies
- rrabies
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of rabies - 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 "rabies"?
What does "rabies" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "rabies", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "rabies". Here's where to go from here.
- "rabies" maps to 12 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "rates". View pair
- 8 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #21,323 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "R" letter cohort. R–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.