ready
/ˈɹɛd.i/
"ready" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ready” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #532 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #532
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Prepared for immediate action or use.
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 | ready |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɹɛd.i/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #532 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ready” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ready is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹɛd.i/. Corpus data places it at rank #532 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for ready, with forms such as "erady", "raedy", and "readdy". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "red", "Rey", "real", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English redy, redi, rædiȝ, iredi, ȝerǣdi, alteration ( + -y) of earlier irēd, irede, ȝerād (“ready, prepared”), from Old English rǣde, ġerǣde (also ġerȳde) ("prepared, prompt, ready, ready for riding (horse), mounted (on a horse), skilled, simpl… The correct English form is ready, spelled R-E-A-D-Y.
Definition
- 1Prepared for immediate action or use.
- 2Prepared for immediate action or use.
- 3Inclined; apt to happen.
- 4Liable at any moment.
- 5Not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception of any kind.
- 6Offering itself at once; at hand; opportune; convenient.
Etymology
From Middle English redy, redi, rædiȝ, iredi, ȝerǣdi, alteration ( + -y) of earlier irēd, irede, ȝerād (“ready, prepared”), from Old English rǣde, ġerǣde (also ġerȳde) ("prepared, prompt, ready, ready for riding (horse), mounted (on a horse), skilled, simple, easy"), from Proto-Germanic *garaidijaz, *raidijaz, from base *raidaz (“ready”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂reh₁dʰ-, *h₂reh₁- (“to count, put in order, arrange, make comfortable”) and also probably conflated with Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ- (“to ride”) in the sense of "set to ride, able or fit to go, ready". Cognate with Scots readie, reddy (“ready, prepared”), West Frisian ree (“ready”), Dutch gereed (“ready”), German bereit (“ready”), Danish rede (“ready”), Swedish redo (“ready, fit, prepared”), Norwegian reiug (“ready, prepared”), Icelandic greiður (“easy, light”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “arranged, ordered”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: erady,raedy,readdy,readyy,reayd,reday,rready
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ready - 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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Using “ready”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-A-D-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹɛd.i/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “red” - see the side-by-side comparison. ready vs red
- 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.