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PlainSpell

responsible

/ɹɪˈspɑn.sə.bəl/adjective, noun

responsible is spelled R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-L-E. The wrong spelling people search most is responsibile: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026). Responsible is an adjective meaning “Having the duty of taking care of something; answerable for an act performed or for its consequences…”.

How many letters and syllables are in responsible?

Letters11: R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-L-E
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing76 times per million words; the 1,394th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched3; the most searched, responsibile, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell responsible?

Responsible is spelled R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-L-E. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure.

responsiblethe right spelling
responsibilean extra i40 searches a month
reponsiblea missing s20 searches a month
responisbles and i swapped20 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is responsible?

Responsible appears 76 times per million words in written English, the 1,394th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce responsible?

  • UK /ɹɪˈspɒn.sə.bəl/
  • UK [ɹɪˈspɒn.sə.bɫ̩]
  • US /ɹɪˈspɑn.sə.bəl/

Responsible has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-responsible.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with responsible?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as responsible from its last stressed vowel (/ɑnsəbəl/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of responsible

  • more responsible comparative
  • most responsible superlative
  • responsibles plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does responsible mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Having the duty of taking care of something; answerable for an act performed or for its consequences; accountable; amenable, especially legally or politically.

    Parents are responsible for their child's behaviour.

  2. 2

    Being a primary cause of a situation or action and thus able to be blamed or credited for it.

    Who is responsible for this mess?

  3. 3

    Answerable to (a superior).

  4. 4

    Involving important duties; involving a degree of personal accountability on the part of the person concerned.

    She has a responsible position in the firm.

  5. 5

    Having good judgment in decision-making.

  6. 6

    Able to be trusted; reliable; trustworthy.

    He looks like a responsible guy.

  7. 7

    Capable of rational conduct and thus morally accountable for one's behavior.

noun

  1. 1

    archaicThe person who bears the responsibility for something.

  2. 2

    An actor taking on the lesser roles in repertory theatre.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Responsible in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchresponsable (answerable for an act performed or for its…)
Germanverantwortlich (answerable for an act performed or for its…), vernünftig (able to answer reasonably for one's conduct), verantwortungsvoll (involving a degree of personal accountability), zuverlässig (able to be trusted)
Portugueseresponsável (answerable for an act performed or for its…)
Spanishresponsable (answerable for an act performed or for its…), de responsabilidad (locution) (involving a degree of personal accountability)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does responsible come from?

From Middle French responsable, from Old French responsable, responsible, formed from the root of Latin responsus, from respondeō, respondēre. The spelling of the English word is taken from the Old French variant responsible. By surface analysis, response + -ible.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after responsible