rapeseed
"rapeseed" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rapeseed” is uncommon English (frequency #55,677 among 21,470 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,677
- frequency rank, English
- 21,470
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The seed of the rape plant (Brassica napus), used widely for animal feed and vegetable oil.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rapeseed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #55,677 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rapeseed” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
rapeseed is uncommon English at frequency #55,677 among 21,470 “R” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
rapeseed doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English rape sede, rape seed, equivalent to rape (“rapeseed plant(s)”) + seed. As a meronym for the entire plant, from the need to distinguish the plant from the etymologically unrelated verb and act rape. In this context, rape is from Latin rāp… The correct English form is rapeseed, spelled R-A-P-E-S-E-E-D.
Definition
- 1The seed of the rape plant (Brassica napus), used widely for animal feed and vegetable oil.
- 2The rape plant itself.
Etymology
From Middle English rape sede, rape seed, equivalent to rape (“rapeseed plant(s)”) + seed. As a meronym for the entire plant, from the need to distinguish the plant from the etymologically unrelated verb and act rape. In this context, rape is from Latin rāpa, from rāpum (“turnip”).
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 “rapeseed”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-A-P-E-S-E-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.