rat-race
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
8 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "rat-race", 8-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "rat-race" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "rat-race" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
rat race is aEnglishnoun. It means: An activity or situation which is congested with participants and which is hectic or tedious, especially in the context of a busy, modern urban lifestyle. Pronounced /ˈɹæt ˌɹeɪs/.
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Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rat race |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹæt ˌɹeɪs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for rat race is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹæt ˌɹeɪs/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for rat race in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From rat + race. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is rat race, spelled R-A-T- -R-A-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1An activity or situation which is congested with participants and which is hectic or tedious, especially in the context of a busy, modern urban lifestyle.
- 2The busy, modern urban lifestyle itself, especially when seen as a competition for wealth or power.
- 3Inconsiderate or unfair competition, where the competitors are willing to use any means to win.
Etymology
From rat + race.
This word in other languages
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: