rabies
/ˈɹeɪ.biːz/
"rabies" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rabies” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #21,323 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #21,323
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 12
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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...
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
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for rabies is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹeɪ.biːz/. Corpus data places it at rank #21,323 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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
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Using “rabies”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-A-B-I-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹeɪ.biːz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “rates” - see the side-by-side comparison. rabies vs rates
- 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.