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PlainSpell

rain

/ɹeɪn/noun, verb

rain is spelled R-A-I-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 51 times per million words in written English, the 1,993rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Rain, the name). People search “rain vs reign” about 90 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, rain means “Condensed water falling from a cloud” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rain is rains.

How many letters and syllables are in rain?

Letters4: R-A-I-N
Syllables1
In writing51 times per million words; the 1,993rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is rain?

Rain appears 51 times per million words in written English, the 1,993rd most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Rain, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce rain?

  • US /ɹeɪn/
  • Australia /ɹæɪn/
  • /ɾen/

Rain has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-rain.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-rain.wav, En-us-rain.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with rain

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

rain vs reign90 G
rain vs rein0 B

Sounds like: rein (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: reign.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with rain?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rain from its last stressed vowel (/eɪn/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: rani, arni.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of rain

  • rains plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • raining participle, present
  • rained participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does rain mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Condensed water falling from a cloud.

    We've been having a lot of rain lately.

  2. 2

    Any matter moving or falling, usually through air, and especially if liquid or otherwise figuratively identifiable with raindrops.

  3. 3

    An instance of particles or larger pieces of matter moving or falling through air.

    A rain of mortar fire fell on our trenches.

verb

  1. 1

    To have rain fall from the sky.

    Judging by the black cloud, it will rain later today.

  2. 2

    To fall as or like rain.

    Tears rained from her eyes.

  3. 3

    To issue (something) in large quantities.

    The boxer rained punches on his opponent's head.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Rain in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpluie (condensed water from a cloud), pleuvoir, royer (of rain: to fall from the sky), pleuvoir des cordes (to fall in large quantities)
GermanRegen, Räge, Reng (condensed water from a cloud), regnen (of rain: to fall from the sky)
Portuguesechuva (condensed water from a cloud), chover (of rain: to fall from the sky), fazer chover (to issue in large quantities)
Spanishlluvia, pluvia (condensed water from a cloud), llover (of rain: to fall from the sky)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does rain come from?

Inherited from Middle English reyn, rein, from Old English reġn, from Proto-West Germanic *regn, from Proto-Germanic *regną, of uncertain origin. Possibly from pre-Germanic *Hréǵ-no-, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreǵ- (“to flow”), although the consonant reflexes don't match.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after rain