repay
/ɹiˈpeɪ/
"repay" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“repay” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #11,953. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #11,953
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of pay back in all senses.
Corpus desk
Index EN-repay · repay · English
repay · rank #11,953 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #11,953
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH remark
Nearest frequency peer: remark (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “repay”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- Reddit
Reddit
88,050 corpus weight
- remark
remark
88,049 corpus weight
- repay
repay
88,048 corpus weight
- Roland
Roland
88,047 corpus weight
- ropes
ropes
88,046 corpus weight
- rouge
rouge
88,045 corpus weight
What this shows “repay” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | repay |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹiˈpeɪ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #11,953 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “repay”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around repay (IPA /ɹiˈpeɪ/), averb. Corpus frequency is #11,953 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for repay, with forms such as "erpay", "reapy", and "repayy". 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, "Rey", "reps", "repo", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old French repaier (“to pay back”), from re- + paiier (“to pay”), from Latin pācāre (“to settle, to make peaceful”), from pāx (“peace”) + -ō (forming verbs). Equivalent to re- + pay. Cognate with repacify and French repayer (“to pay again”). The correct English form is repay, spelled R-E-P-A-Y.
Definition
- 1Synonym of pay back in all senses.
- 2To make worthwhile; to yield a result worth the effort; to pay off.
- 3To give in return; requite.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how repay appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I finally repaid my student loans, just before sending my kids to college.
I'll repay this wrong asap.
Etymology
From Old French repaier (“to pay back”), from re- + paiier (“to pay”), from Latin pācāre (“to settle, to make peaceful”), from pāx (“peace”) + -ō (forming verbs). Equivalent to re- + pay. Cognate with repacify and French repayer (“to pay again”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- erpay
- reapy
- repayy
- reppay
- repya
- rpeay
- rrepay
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of repay - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "repay", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).