rambunctious
/ɹæmˈbʌŋ(k)ʃəs/
"rambunctious" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rambunctious” is uncommon English (frequency #58,958 among 21,470 “R” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,958
- frequency rank, English
- 21,470
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Boisterous, energetic, noisy, and difficult to control.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rambunctious |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɹæmˈbʌŋ(k)ʃəs/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #58,958 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rambunctious” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
rambunctious is uncommon English at frequency #58,958 among 21,470 “R” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ɹæmˈbʌŋ(k)ʃəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Boisterous, energetic, noisy, and difficult to control.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for rambunctious, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: A variant of rumbustious (“boisterous and unruly”). The correct English form is rambunctious, spelled R-A-M-B-U-N-C-T-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Boisterous, energetic, noisy, and difficult to control.
Etymology
A variant of rumbustious (“boisterous and unruly”).
This word in other languages
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 “rambunctious”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-A-M-B-U-N-C-T-I-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹæmˈbʌŋ(k)ʃəs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.