redress
/ɹɪˈdɹɛs/
"redress" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“redress” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,968 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #23,968
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To put in order again; to set right; to revise.
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 | redress |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈdɹɛs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #23,968 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “redress” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for redress is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪˈdɹɛs/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,968 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for redress, with forms such as "erdress", "rderess", and "reddress". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "refresh", "repress", "regress", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English redressen, from Anglo-Norman radresser, redrescer, redrescier and Middle French redresser (“to stand (someone or something) up; to stand up again; to rebuild, to repair something damaged, to rectify, to restore; to obtain redress; to cur… The correct English form is redress, spelled R-E-D-R-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1To put in order again; to set right; to revise.
- 2To set right (a wrong); to repair, (an injury or damage); to make amends for; to remedy; to relieve from.
- 3To make amends or compensation to; to relieve of anything unjust or oppressive; to bestow relief upon.
- 4To put upright again; to restore.
Etymology
From Middle English redressen, from Anglo-Norman radresser, redrescer, redrescier and Middle French redresser (“to stand (someone or something) up; to stand up again; to rebuild, to repair something damaged, to rectify, to restore; to obtain redress; to cure; (of hair) to stand on end; to revise a judgment”) (modern French redresser), from Old French redrecier (“to stand (someone or something) up; to stand up again”), from Old French re- (“again, once more”) (from Latin re-, from Proto-Italic *wre (“again”); further etymology uncertain) + Old French drechier, drecier, dresser (“to dress; to stand up”) (from Vulgar Latin *drēctiāre, a contracted form of *dīrēctiāre, from Latin dīrēctus (“straight”)). Compare Catalan redreçar, Spanish redreçar (obsolete), Italian redreçare, redrezare, redricciare, ridirizzare (all obsolete), ridrizzare, Late Latin redressare (“to repair; to set right”), Old Occitan redreisar, redresar.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: erdress,rderess,reddress,rederss,redres,redrress,redrses,rerdess,rredress
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of redress - 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
How do you spell "redress"?
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Using “redress”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-D-R-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹɪˈdɹɛs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “refresh” - see the side-by-side comparison. redress vs refresh
- 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.