Rastafari

name

"rastafari" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Rastafari” is uncommon English (frequency #82,708 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#82,708
frequency rank, English
3,094
“R” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Rastafarianism.

Corpus desk

Index EN-rastafari · Rastafari · English

Rastafari · rank #82,708 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #82,708
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,094
  • PHOTO-FINISH rapey

Nearest frequency peer: rapey (-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.

Long-tail ranks near “Rastafari”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “Rastafari” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Rastafari
PropertyValue
HeadwordRastafari
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters9
Frequency rank#82,708
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Rastafari” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).Rastafarifalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “rapey” (#82,707), “rangeland” (#82,706), “ratu” (#82,710). Among 3,094 “R” headwords, “Rastafari” is #82,708. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Rastafari is uncommon English at frequency #82,708 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Rastafarianism.".

Rastafari doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Semitic *raʔš- Amharic ራስ (ras) Amharic ተፈሪ (täfäri) English Rastafari From Amharic ራስ (ras, “Duke”, literally “head”) and ተፈሪ (täfäri, “revered”) from ተፈሪ መኮንን (täfäri mäkonn, “Haile Selassie”, literally “feared (son of) Makonnen”). Mo… The correct English form is Rastafari, spelled R-A-S-T-A-F-A-R-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Rastafarianism.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Semitic *raʔš- Amharic ራስ (ras) Amharic ተፈሪ (täfäri) English Rastafari From Amharic ራስ (ras, “Duke”, literally “head”) and ተፈሪ (täfäri, “revered”) from ተፈሪ መኮንን (täfäri mäkonn, “Haile Selassie”, literally “feared (son of) Makonnen”). More at Haile Selassie.

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

How do you spell "Rastafari"?
"Rastafari" is spelled R-A-S-T-A-F-A-R-I.
What does "Rastafari" mean?
As a proper noun, "Rastafari" means: Rastafarianism.
What is the origin of the word "Rastafari"?
Etymology tree Proto-Semitic *raʔš- Amharic ራስ (ras) Amharic ተፈሪ (täfäri) English Rastafari From Amharic ራስ (ras, “Duke”, literally “head”) and ተፈሪ (täfäri, “revered”) from ተፈሪ መኮንን (täfäri mäkonn, “Haile Selassie”, literally “feared (son of) Mako... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Rastafari", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list