rennet
/ˈɹɛnɪt/
"rennet" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rennet” is uncommon English (frequency #78,074 among 21,470 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #78,074
- frequency rank, English
- 21,470
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An enzyme used as the first step in making cheese, to curdle the milk and coagulate the casein in it, derived by soaking the fourth stomach of a milk-fed calf in brine.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rennet |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹɛnɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #78,074 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rennet” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
rennet is uncommon English at frequency #78,074 among 21,470 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɹɛnɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An enzyme used as the first step in making cheese, to curdle the milk and coagulate the casein in it, derived by soaking the fourth stomach of a milk-fed calf in brine.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for rennet in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English rennet, from Old English *rynnet, *ġerynnet, from Proto-West Germanic *garunniþu (“coagulation, curdling, rennet”), cognate with Old Saxon girunnida (“a running together, coagulation”), Old High German girunnida (“rennet, coagulation”), … The correct English form is rennet, spelled R-E-N-N-E-T.
Definition
- 1An enzyme used as the first step in making cheese, to curdle the milk and coagulate the casein in it, derived by soaking the fourth stomach of a milk-fed calf in brine.
Etymology
From Middle English rennet, from Old English *rynnet, *ġerynnet, from Proto-West Germanic *garunniþu (“coagulation, curdling, rennet”), cognate with Old Saxon girunnida (“a running together, coagulation”), Old High German girunnida (“rennet, coagulation”), Middle High German gerinnede (“that which is curdled”). Compare also Middle English renelesse, renels, renlys, rendlys (“rennet”), Middle Dutch rinsel, runsel (“rennet”), German Rennsel; further to Middle English irennen (“to curdle; to run”), Old English ġerennan (“to coagulate”), Old High German girunst (“rennet”), German gerinnen (“to coagulate; congeal”).
This word in other languages
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 “rennet”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-N-N-E-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹɛnɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.