ravin
/ˈɹæv(ɪ)n/
"ravin" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ravin” is an uncommon English word, ranked #94,170 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #94,170
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Property obtained or seized by force or violence; booty, plunder, spoils.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ravin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹæv(ɪ)n/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #94,170 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ravin” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ravin is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹæv(ɪ)n/. Corpus data places it at rank #94,170 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
ravin has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English ravin, ravine, raven (“rapine, robbery; rape; force, violence; greed, rapacity; stolen goods, booty, plunder; prey, quarry; pursuit of prey; predatoriness, voracity”), from Anglo-Norman ravein, raveine, ravine (“rapin… The correct English form is ravin, spelled R-A-V-I-N.
Definition
- 1Property obtained or seized by force or violence; booty, plunder, spoils.
- 2Of a (predatory) animal: seizing or devouring of food or prey; predation.
- 3Gluttony, greed, rapacity; also, the quality of being predatory; predatoriness.
- 4A predatory animal; a predator.
- 5Obtaining or seizing property by force or violence; pillage, plunder, robbery; (countable, chiefly in the plural) an instance of this.
- 6That which a predatory animal seizes for food; prey; also (hunting) an animal which is hunted; quarry.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English ravin, ravine, raven (“rapine, robbery; rape; force, violence; greed, rapacity; stolen goods, booty, plunder; prey, quarry; pursuit of prey; predatoriness, voracity”), from Anglo-Norman ravein, raveine, ravine (“rapine, robbery; rape; force, violence; greed, rapacity; impetuousness; stolen goods”), Middle French ravine, and Old French ravine (“rapine, robbery; force, violence; impetuousness”), from Latin rapīna (“pillage, plunder, robbery, rapine; booty, plunder”), from rapiō (“to abduct, carry off; to grab, snatch; to rape; to steal”) (from Proto-Italic *rapjō (“to seize, take away”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rep- (“to snatch”)) + -īna (suffix forming abstract nouns). The adjective is derived from Middle English ravin, ravine (“predatory; ravenous”), from Middle English ravin, ravine (noun): see above. The verb is not attested before the 16th century, but words like Middle English raviner, ravinour (“plunderer; robber; rapist; predator”), ravening (“act of robbery; predatoriness, rapacity”, noun), and ravening, ravining (“(adjective) savage, ravening; (noun) preceded by ‘the’: the devil”) suggest that it existed in the 14th and 15th centuries, and was probably derived from the noun. Compare Middle French raviner (“to make furrows”), Old French raviner (“to take by force; to rush; to stream”) (modern French raviner)
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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Using “ravin”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-A-V-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹæv(ɪ)n/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.