reign
/ɹeɪn/
"reign" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“reign” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,407 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,407
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The exercise of sovereign power.
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 | reign |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹeɪn/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,407 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “reign” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for reign is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹeɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,407 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for reign, with forms such as "erign", "regin", and "reiggn". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "rig", "ren", "rin", 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 regnen, from Old French reignier, from the Latin verb rēgnō, and the noun rēgnum. Doublet of regnum. Displaced native Old English rīċe (“a reign”) and ricsian (“to reign”). The correct English form is reign, spelled R-E-I-G-N.
Definition
- 1The exercise of sovereign power.
- 2The period during which a monarch rules.
- 3The territory or sphere over which a kingdom; empire; realm; dominion, etc. is ruled.
Etymology
From Middle English regnen, from Old French reignier, from the Latin verb rēgnō, and the noun rēgnum. Doublet of regnum. Displaced native Old English rīċe (“a reign”) and ricsian (“to reign”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: erign,regin,reiggn,reignn,reing,riegn,rreign
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of reign - 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
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Using “reign”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-I-G-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹeɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “rig” - see the side-by-side comparison. reign vs rig
- 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.