regular
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "regular", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "regular" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "regular" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
regular is anEnglishadj. It means: Bound by religious rule; belonging to a monastic or religious order (often as opposed to secular). Pronounced /ˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə(ɹ)/. It ranks #1,205 in English word frequency. Often confused with regulate and regularly.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | regular |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,205 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for regular is 7 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,205 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 20 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for regular, with forms such as "ergular", "reggular", and "regluar". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "regulate", "regularly", "regulator", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English reguler, from Anglo-Norman reguler, Middle French reguler, regulier, and their source, Latin rēgulāris (“continuing rules for guidance”), from rēgula (“rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“move in a straight line”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is regular, spelled R-E-G-U-L-A-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Bound by religious rule; belonging to a monastic or religious order (often as opposed to secular).
- 2Having a constant pattern; showing evenness of form or appearance.
- 3Both equilateral and equiangular; having all sides of the same length, and all (corresponding) angles of the same size
- 4Whose faces are all congruent regular polygons, equally inclined to each other.
- 5Demonstrating a consistent set of rules; showing order, evenness of operation or occurrence.
- 6Of a moon or other satellite: following a relatively close and prograde orbit with little inclination or eccentricity.
- 7Well-behaved, orderly; restrained (of a lifestyle etc.).
- 8Happening at constant (especially short) intervals.
- 9Following a set or common pattern; according to the general rules of a given language.
- 10Having the expected characteristics or appearances; normal, ordinary, standard.
- 11Permanently organised; being part of a set professional body of troops.
- 12Having bowel movements or menstrual periods at constant intervals in the expected way.
- 13Exemplary; excellent example of; utter, downright.
- 14Having all the parts of the same kind alike in size and shape.
- 15Isometric.
- 16Riding with the left foot forward.
- 17Such that every set in its domain is both outer regular and inner regular.
- 18Noetherian and such that the minimal number of generators of the maximal ideal is equal to the Krull dimension of the ring.
- 19Such that the local ring at every point is regular.
- 20A von Neumann regular: such that every left module (over the given ring) is flat.
Etymology
From Middle English reguler, from Anglo-Norman reguler, Middle French reguler, regulier, and their source, Latin rēgulāris (“continuing rules for guidance”), from rēgula (“rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“move in a straight line”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ergular,reggular,regluar,regualr,regularr,regullar,regulra,reuglar,rgeular,rregular
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for regular
Misspelling Variants of "regular"
Frequency rank: #1,205 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: