rare
/ɹɛ/
"rare" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rare” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,772. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,772
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Very uncommon; scarce.
Corpus desk
Index EN-rare · rare · English
rare · rank #1,772 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,772
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH prove
Nearest frequency peer: prove (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “rare”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- patient
patient
98,232 corpus weight
- possibly
possibly
98,231 corpus weight
- prove
prove
98,230 corpus weight
- rare
rare
98,229 corpus weight
- setting
setting
98,228 corpus weight
- skills
skills
98,227 corpus weight
What this shows “rare” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rare |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɹɛ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,772 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “rare”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around rare (IPA /ɹɛ/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,772 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for rare, with forms such as "arre", "raer", and "rarre". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "re", "RR", "ray", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere (“rare, uncommon”), from Latin rārus (“loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“friable, thin”). Displaced native English geason (“rare, scarce”) (from Middle English g… The correct English form is rare, spelled R-A-R-E.
Definition
- 1Very uncommon; scarce.
- 2Small in number (but not unusual); infrequent; sparse.
- 3Thin; of low density.
- 4Good; enjoyable.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how rare appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable.
Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.
Etymology
From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere (“rare, uncommon”), from Latin rārus (“loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“friable, thin”). Displaced native English geason (“rare, scarce”) (from Middle English gesen, from Old English gǣsne); and replaced Middle English seld (“rare, uncommon”) (from Old English selden) and Middle English seldscene (“rare, rarely seen, infrequent”) (from Old English seldsēne).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- arre
- raer
- rarre
- rrae
- rrare
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of rare - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "rare", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).