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rebel

/ˈɹɛb.əl/noun, verb

rebel is spelled R-E-B-E-L. The wrong spelling people search most is rebble: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 196 of all searches for the word. Rebel is a noun meaning “A person who resists an established authority, often violently”. The plural of rebel is rebels.

How many letters and syllables are in rebel?

Letters5: R-E-B-E-L
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, rebble, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell rebel?

Rebel is spelled R-E-B-E-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 196 of the searches for rebel in either form.

rebelthe right spelling11,730 searches a month
rebblean extra b, e and l swapped60 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is rebel?

Rebel appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce rebel?

  • /ˈɹɛb.əl/
  • Australia /ˈɹeb.əl/

As a verb (“To resist or become defiant toward an authority”): /ɹɪˈbɛl/, /ɹɪˈbel/.

Rebel has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-rebel.ogg, En-us-rebel-verb.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with rebel

Also written: reb.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of rebel

  • rebels plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • rebelling participle, present
  • rebelled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does rebel mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A person who resists an established authority, often violently.

    A group of rebels defied the general's orders and split off from the main army.

  2. 2

    USSynonym of Confederate: a citizen of the Confederate States of America, especially a Confederate soldier.

verb

  1. 1

    To resist or become defiant toward an authority.

    to rebel against the system

  2. 2

    To forcefully subvert the law of the land in an attempt to replace it with another form of government.

noun

as Rebel
  1. 1

    USA Confederate soldier; of the American Civil War.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate rebel?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of rebel: reb.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Rebel in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrebelle (person who resists an established authority), se rebeller (to resist or become defiant towards)
GermanRebell, Aufrührer (person who resists an established authority), rebellieren, sich auflehnen, aufbegehren (to resist or become defiant towards)
Portugueserebelde (person who resists an established authority), rebelar (to resist or become defiant towards)
Spanishrebelde (person who resists an established authority), rebelarse (to resist or become defiant towards)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does rebel come from?

From Middle English rebel, rebell, from Old French rebelle, from Latin rebellis (“waging war again; insurgent”), from rebellō (“to wage war again, fight back”), from re- (“again, back”) + bellō (“to wage war”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after rebel