repay
/ɹiˈpeɪ/
"repay" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“repay” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,953 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #11,953
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Synonym of pay back in all senses.
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) |
Where “repay” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for repay is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹiˈpeɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,953 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. 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 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.
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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Using “repay”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-P-A-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹiˈpeɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Rey” - see the side-by-side comparison. repay vs Rey
- 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.