rappel
/ɹæˈpɛl/
"rappel" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rappel” is uncommon English (frequency #72,695 among 21,470 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #72,695
- frequency rank, English
- 21,470
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Descending by means of a rope, abseiling.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rappel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹæˈpɛl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #72,695 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rappel” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
rappel is uncommon English at frequency #72,695 among 21,470 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɹæˈpɛl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Descending by means of a rope, abseiling.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for rappel, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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: Borrowed from French rappeler (“to pull through (a rope)”). The correct English form is rappel, spelled R-A-P-P-E-L.
Definition
- 1Descending by means of a rope, abseiling.
Etymology
Borrowed from French rappeler (“to pull through (a rope)”).
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 “rappel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-A-P-P-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹæˈpɛl/ (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.