ragweed
/ˈɹæɡˌwid/
"ragweed" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ragweed” is uncommon English (frequency #75,334 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,334
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A plant of the genus Ambrosia. These weeds are particularly noted for producing pollen that triggers hay fever.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ragweed · ragweed · English
ragweed · rank #75,334 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #75,334
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH railcar
Nearest frequency peer: railcar (+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.
Long-tail ranks near “ragweed”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- quickstep
quickstep
24,672 corpus weight
- quintile
quintile
24,671 corpus weight
- radioisotope
radioisotope
24,669 corpus weight
- ragweed
ragweed
24,667 corpus weight
- railcar
railcar
24,666 corpus weight
- Raph
Raph
24,663 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “ragweed” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ragweed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹæɡˌwid/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #75,334 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ragweed” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ragweed is uncommon English at frequency #75,334 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɹæɡˌwid/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
ragweed has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From rag + weed. Compare Middle English ragwed (“butcher's broom”). The correct English form is ragweed, spelled R-A-G-W-E-E-D.
Definition
- 1A plant of the genus Ambrosia. These weeds are particularly noted for producing pollen that triggers hay fever.
- 2A summer cypress, mock cypress (Bassia scoparia).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ragweed appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Fig. 1.—Spiculated pollens of ragweeds (ambrosias) low in protein. […] In the cocklebur (Xanthium americanum) and the rough wild elder (Iva ciliata), the spicules are shorter, being 0.7 and 0.5 microns, and the reaction is proportionately less active than with the ragweeds (ambrosias). […] While the grass pollens have so light a coat that they are frequen…
RAGWEED (Jeffogia Fingerolia) : The hayfever king, ragweed, brings tears to the eyes of grown men.
Etymology
From rag + weed. Compare Middle English ragwed (“butcher's broom”).
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.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ragweed", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).