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radius

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

6 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "radius", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "radius" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "radius" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

radius is aEnglishnoun. It means: The long bone in the forearm, on the side of the thumb. Pronounced /ˈɹeɪ.di.əs/. It ranks #8,847 in English word frequency. Often confused with rains and rails.

Key facts for radius
PropertyValue
Headwordradius
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈɹeɪ.di.əs/
Letters6
Frequency rank#8,847
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of radius in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for radius is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹeɪ.di.əs/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,847 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for radius, with forms such as "ardius", "raddius", and "radisu". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "rains", "rails", "radio", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin radius (“ray”). Doublet of ray. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is radius, spelled R-A-D-I-U-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The long bone in the forearm, on the side of the thumb.
  2. 2
    The lighter bone (or fused portion of bone) in the forelimb of an animal.
  3. 3
    One of the major veins of the insect wing, between the subcosta and the media; the vein running along the costal edge of the discal cell.
  4. 4
    A line segment between any point of a circle or sphere and its center.
  5. 5
    The length of this line segment.
  6. 6
    Anything resembling a radius, such as the spoke of a wheel, the movable arm of a sextant, or one of the radiating lines of a spider's web.
  7. 7
    The minimum eccentricity of any vertex, for a given graph.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin radius (“ray”). Doublet of ray.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ardius,raddius,radisu,radiuss,raduis,raidus,rdaius,rradius

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for radius

Misspelling Variants of "radius"

ardius6raddius7radisu6radiuss7raduis6raidus6rdaius6rradius7
Misspelling Variants of "radius"

Frequency rank: #8,847 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "radius"?
"radius" is spelled R-A-D-I-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈɹeɪ.di.əs/.
What does "radius" mean?
As a noun, "radius" means: The long bone in the forearm, on the side of the thumb.
What words are commonly confused with "radius"?
"radius" is commonly confused with "rains", "rails", "radio". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "radius"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "radius" is /ˈɹeɪ.di.əs/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "radius"?
Borrowed from Latin radius (“ray”). Doublet of ray. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.