red light
"red-light" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“red light” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A warning light, especially as a traffic signal indicating stop.
Corpus desk
Index EN-red-light · red light · English
red light · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | red light |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “red light” in English
Rare enough to double-check
red light is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for red light, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is red light, spelled R-E-D- -L-I-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1A warning light, especially as a traffic signal indicating stop.
- 2A sign of a brothel.
- 3A denial to proceed a ruling out of any possibility.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how red light appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We ran three red lights on the way to the hospital.
Paddington [the GWR HQ] saw the red light, however, and the extension to Nantgarw was withdrawn on the G.W.R. agreeing "to lay down the narrow gauge [actually standard gauge as compared to broad gauge] from Didcot over the whole of their system in South Wales."
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.