rats
/ɹæts/
"rats" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rats” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #6,612. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #6,612
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - plural of rat
Corpus desk
Index EN-rats · rats · English
rats · rank #6,612 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,612
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH ranges
Nearest frequency peer: ranges (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “rats”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- rabbit
rabbit
93,392 corpus weight
- ranges
ranges
93,390 corpus weight
- rats
rats
93,389 corpus weight
- retire
retire
93,388 corpus weight
- rhythm
rhythm
93,387 corpus weight
- ruth
ruth
93,386 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “rats” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | rats |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹæts/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,612 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rats” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around rats (IPA /ɹæts/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,612 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Dominant gloss: "plural of rat".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for rats, with forms such as "rast", "ratss", and "ratts". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "RS", "RT", "ray", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is rats, spelled R-A-T-S.
Definition
- 1plural of rat
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- rast
- ratss
- ratts
- rrats
- rtas
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of rats - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "rats", 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).
What to do next
You've looked up "rats". Here's where to go from here.
- "rats" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "RS". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #6,612 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "R" letter cohort. R–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.