residue
/ˈɹɛzɪduː/
"residue" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“residue” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,401 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,401
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - That which persists or remains following the removal or elimination of other elements.
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 | residue |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹɛzɪduː/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #14,401 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “residue” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for residue is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹɛzɪduː/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,401 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for residue, with forms such as "ersidue", "reisdue", and "resdiue". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "retinue", "rescue", "reside", 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 residue, from Old French residu, from Latin residuum, neuter of residuus (“remaining”), from resideō (“I remain behind”). Doublet of residuum. The correct English form is residue, spelled R-E-S-I-D-U-E.
Definition
- 1That which persists or remains following the removal or elimination of other elements.
- 2The substance that remains after evaporation, distillation, filtration or any similar process.
- 3A molecule that is released from a polymer after bonds between neighbouring monomers are broken, such as an amino acid in a polypeptide chain.
- 4Whatever property or effects are left in an estate after payment of all debts, other charges and deduction of what is specifically bequeathed by the testator.
- 5A representative element of an equivalence class modulo some base, conventionally in the half-open interval from zero to the base; the nonnegative remainder after dividing a number by a base.
- 6A form of complex number, proportional to the contour integral of a meromorphic function along a path enclosing one of its singularities.
Etymology
From Middle English residue, from Old French residu, from Latin residuum, neuter of residuus (“remaining”), from resideō (“I remain behind”). Doublet of residuum.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ersidue,reisdue,resdiue,residdue,resideu,resiude,ressidue,rresidue,rseidue
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of residue - 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 “residue”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-S-I-D-U-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹɛzɪduː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “retinue” - see the side-by-side comparison. residue vs retinue
- 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.