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rehabilitate

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

12 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "rehabilitate", 12-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 "rehabilitate" 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 "rehabilitate" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

rehabilitate is aEnglishverb. It means: To restore (someone) to their former state, reputation, possessions, status etc. Pronounced /ɹiː(h)əˈbɪlɪteɪt/.

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Key facts for rehabilitate
PropertyValue
Headwordrehabilitate
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/ɹiː(h)əˈbɪlɪteɪt/
Letters12
Frequency rank#29,060
Misspellings tracked17
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of rehabilitate in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for rehabilitate is 12 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹiː(h)əˈbɪlɪteɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,060 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 17 documented wrong-spelling variants for rehabilitate, with forms such as "erhabilitate", "reahbilitate", and "rehabbilitate". 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 is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin rehabilitātus, perfect passive participle of Latin rehabilitō. See habilitate. 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 rehabilitate, spelled R-E-H-A-B-I-L-I-T-A-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    To restore (someone) to their former state, reputation, possessions, status etc.
  2. 2
    To vindicate; to restore the reputation or image of (a person, concept etc.).
  3. 3
    To return (something) to its original condition.
  4. 4
    To restore or repair (a vehicle, building); to make habitable or usable again.
  5. 5
    To restore to (a criminal etc.) the necessary training and education to allow for a successful reintegration into society; to retrain.
  6. 6
    To return (someone) to good health after illness, addiction, etc.
  7. 7
    To go through such a process; to recover.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin rehabilitātus, perfect passive participle of Latin rehabilitō. See habilitate.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: erhabilitate,reahbilitate,rehabbilitate,rehabiiltate,rehabiliatte,rehabilitaet,rehabilitatte,rehabilittae,rehabilittate,rehabillitate,rehabiltiate,rehabliitate,rehaiblitate,rehbailitate,rehhabilitate,rheabilitate,rrehabilitate

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for rehabilitate

Misspelling Variants of "rehabilitate"

erhabilitate12reahbilitate12rehabbilitate13rehabiiltate12rehabiliatte12rehabilitaet12rehabilitatte13rehabilittae12
Misspelling Variants of "rehabilitate"

Frequency rank: #29,060 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "rehabilitate"?
"rehabilitate" is spelled R-E-H-A-B-I-L-I-T-A-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ɹiː(h)əˈbɪlɪteɪt/.
What does "rehabilitate" mean?
As a verb, "rehabilitate" means: To restore (someone) to their former state, reputation, possessions, status etc.
What are common misspellings of "rehabilitate"?
Common misspellings include "erhabilitate", "reahbilitate", "rehabbilitate", "rehabiiltate", "rehabiliatte". The correct spelling is "rehabilitate".
How do you pronounce "rehabilitate"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rehabilitate" is /ɹiː(h)əˈbɪlɪteɪt/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "rehabilitate"?
Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin rehabilitātus, perfect passive participle of Latin rehabilitō. See habilitate. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.