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PlainSpell

rest

/ɹɛst/noun, verb

rest is spelled R-E-S-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 170 times per million words in written English, the 591st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “rest vs wrest” about 50 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, rest means “Relief from work or activity by sleeping; sleep” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rest is rests or rests..

How many letters and syllables are in rest?

Letters4: R-E-S-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing170 times per million words; the 591st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

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 common is rest?

Rest appears 170 times per million words in written English, the 591st 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 rest?

  • US /ɹɛst/
  • Australia /ɹest/
  • /ɾɛst/

As a noun (“That which remains”): /ɹɛst/, /ɹɛst/, /ɹest/.

Rest has one syllable (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-rest.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-rest.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with rest

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

rest vs wrest50 G

Sounds like: wrest (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with rest?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rest from its last stressed vowel (/ɛst/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: tres, erst.

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 rest

  • rests plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • resting participle, present
  • rested participle, past
  • rests. plural
  • 'rests present, singular, he/she/it
  • 'resting participle, present
  • 'rested participle, past

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

What does rest mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Relief from work or activity by sleeping; sleep.

    I need to get a good rest tonight; I was up late last night.

  2. 2

    Any relief from exertion; a state of quiet and relaxation.

    We took a rest at the top of the hill to get our breath back.

  3. 3

    Peace; freedom from worry, anxiety, annoyances; tranquility.

    It was nice to have a rest from the phone ringing when I unplugged it for a while.

  4. 4

    A state of inactivity; a state of little or no motion; a state of completion.

    The boulder came to rest just behind the house after rolling down the mountain.

  5. 5

    A final position after death. Also, death itself: "Not alone, not alone would I go to my rest in the heart of the love..." -- George William Russell ("Love")

    She was laid to rest in the village cemetery.

  6. 6

    A pause of a specified length in a piece of music.

    Remember there's a rest at the end of the fourth bar.

  7. 7

    A written symbol indicating such a pause in a musical score such as in sheet music.

  8. 8

    Absence of motion.

    The body's centre of gravity may affect its state of rest.

  9. 9

    That which remains.

    She ate some of the food, but was not hungry enough to eat it all, so she put the rest in the refrigerator to finish later.

  10. 10

    Those not included in a proposition or description; the remainder; others.

  11. 11

    UKA surplus held as a reserved fund by a bank to equalize its dividends, etc.; in the Bank of England, the balance of assets above liabilities.

verb

  1. 1

    To cease from action, motion, work, or performance of any kind; stop; desist; be without motion.

    My day's work is over; now I will rest.

  2. 2

    To come to a pause or an end; end.

  3. 3

    To be free from that which harasses or disturbs; be quiet or still; be undisturbed.

  4. 4

    To put into a state of rest.

    We need to rest the horses before we ride any further.

  5. 5

    To stay, remain, be situated, or belong to.

    The blame seems to rest with your father.

  6. 6

    To rely or depend on.

    The decision rests on getting a bank loan.

  7. 7

    To be based on; to rely on something for proof or explanation

  8. 8

    To lean, lie, or lay.

    A column rests on its pedestal.

  9. 9

    To continue to be, remain, be left in a certain way.

    You can rest assured that a sick child will say when it's again ready to eat, so it won't starve and doesn't need to be cajoled into eating.

  10. 10

    obsoleteTo keep a certain way.

    God rest you merry, gentlemen.

  11. 11

    colloquialobsoleteTo arrest.

noun

as REST
  1. 1

    Acronym of representational state transfer.

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

Rest in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrepos (relief afforded by sleeping; sleep), paix, quiétude (peace, freedom from trouble, tranquility), se reposer, faire une pause (intransitive: take repose), cesser (put into state of rest)
GermanRuhe, Erholung (relief afforded by sleeping; sleep), ruhen, sich erholen (intransitive: take repose), Pause (relief from exertion; state of quiet and…), Rest (remainder)
Portugueserepouso, descanso (relief afforded by sleeping; sleep), paz, tranquilidade (peace, freedom from trouble, tranquility), descansar, repousar (intransitive: take repose)
Spanishreposo (relief afforded by sleeping; sleep), descansar, reposar (intransitive: take repose), descanso, holganza (relief from exertion; state of quiet and…), pausa (pause of a specified length in a piece of music)

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 rest come from?

From Middle English rest, reste, from Old English ræst, from Proto-West Germanic *rastu, from Proto-Germanic *rastō, of uncertain origin; possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“to rest”) or *Hre(h₁)s- (“to flow, rush”).

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

What to look up after rest