ratify
/ˈɹætɪfaɪ/
"ratify" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ratify” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #31,306 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #31,306
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To give formal consent to; make officially valid, sign off on.
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 | ratify |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈɹætɪfaɪ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #31,306 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ratify” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ratify is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹætɪfaɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #31,306 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To give formal consent to; make officially valid, sign off on.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for ratify, with forms such as "artify", "raitfy", and "ratfiy". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "ratio", "rating", "ration", 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 Old French ratifier, from Medieval Latin ratifico, from Latin ratus (“reckoned”). The correct English form is ratify, spelled R-A-T-I-F-Y.
Definition
- 1To give formal consent to; make officially valid, sign off on.
Etymology
From Old French ratifier, from Medieval Latin ratifico, from Latin ratus (“reckoned”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: artify,raitfy,ratfiy,ratiffy,ratifyy,ratiyf,rattify,rratify,rtaify
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ratify - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "ratify"?
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Using “ratify”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-A-T-I-F-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹætɪfaɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ratio” - see the side-by-side comparison. ratify vs ratio
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.