religion
/ɹɪˈlɪd͡ʒ.ən/
"religion" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“religion” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,877 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,877
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Belief in a spiritual or metaphysical reality (often including at least one deity), accompanied by practices or rituals pertaining to the belief.
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 | religion |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈlɪd͡ʒ.ən/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #1,877 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “religion” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for religion is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪˈlɪd͡ʒ.ən/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,877 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for religion, with forms such as "erligion", "reilgion", and "relgiion". 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, "revision", "religious", "religions", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English religioun, from Old French religion, from Latin religiō (“scrupulousness, pious misgivings, superstition, conscientiousness, sanctity, an object of veneration, cult-observance, reverence”). Most likely from the Proto-Indo-European *h₂leg… The correct English form is religion, spelled R-E-L-I-G-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Belief in a spiritual or metaphysical reality (often including at least one deity), accompanied by practices or rituals pertaining to the belief.
- 2A particular system of such belief, and the rituals and practices proper to it.
- 3The way of life committed to by monks and nuns.
- 4Rituals and actions associated with religious beliefs, but considered apart from them.
- 5Any practice to which someone or some group is seriously devoted.
- 6Faithfulness to a given principle; conscientiousness.
Etymology
From Middle English religioun, from Old French religion, from Latin religiō (“scrupulousness, pious misgivings, superstition, conscientiousness, sanctity, an object of veneration, cult-observance, reverence”). Most likely from the Proto-Indo-European *h₂leg- with the meanings preserved in Latin dīligere and legere (“to read repeatedly”, “to have something solely in mind”). Displaced Old English ǣfæstnes (“religion, lawfulness”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: erligion,reilgion,relgiion,religgion,religino,religionn,religoin,reliigon,relligion,rleigion,rreligion
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of religion - 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 “religion”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-L-I-G-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹɪˈlɪd͡ʒ.ən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “revision” - see the side-by-side comparison. religion vs revision
- 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.