reggae
/ˈɹɛɡeɪ/
"reggae" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“reggae” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,689 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #15,689
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s and is heavily associated with Rastafarianism, featuring a heavy bass line and percussive rhythm guitar on the offbeat, often with close v...
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 | reggae |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹɛɡeɪ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #15,689 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “reggae” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for reggae is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹɛɡeɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,689 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s and is heavily associated with Rastafarianism, featuring a heavy bass line and percussive rhythm guitar on the offbeat, often with close v...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for reggae, with forms such as "erggae", "regae", and "regage". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "regime", "Reggie", "regal", 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 Jamaican Creole rege (“rags; a quarrel”), see rag; originally used in the 1960s to describe a Jamaican dance. Compare ragtime. Broader musical sense popularized by the 1968 Maytals song “Do the Reggay”. The correct English form is reggae, spelled R-E-G-G-A-E.
Definition
- 1A music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s and is heavily associated with Rastafarianism, featuring a heavy bass line and percussive rhythm guitar on the offbeat, often with close vocal harmonies.
Etymology
From Jamaican Creole rege (“rags; a quarrel”), see rag; originally used in the 1960s to describe a Jamaican dance. Compare ragtime. Broader musical sense popularized by the 1968 Maytals song “Do the Reggay”.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: erggae,regae,regage,reggea,rgegae,rreggae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of reggae - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "reggae"?
What does "reggae" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "reggae"?
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Using “reggae”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-G-G-A-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹɛɡeɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “regime” - see the side-by-side comparison. reggae vs regime
- 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.