ret
/ɹɛt/
"ret" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ret” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,085 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #23,085
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To prepare (flax, hemp etc.) for further processing by soaking, which facilitates separation of fibers from the woody parts of the stem.
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 | ret |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹɛt/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #23,085 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ret” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ret is 3 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɛt/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,085 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To prepare (flax, hemp etc.) for further processing by soaking, which facilitates separation of fibers from the woody parts of the stem.".
Zero misspellings are on record for ret in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "RS", "RT", "RM", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English retten, reten; perhaps from Middle Dutch rēten, reeten (compare Middle Low German rōten; Middle High German rōzen), or from Old Norse reyta (compare Norwegian røyta, Swedish röta); all from Proto-Germanic *rautijaną (“to make mellow or s… The correct English form is ret, spelled R-E-T.
Definition
- 1To prepare (flax, hemp etc.) for further processing by soaking, which facilitates separation of fibers from the woody parts of the stem.
Etymology
From Middle English retten, reten; perhaps from Middle Dutch rēten, reeten (compare Middle Low German rōten; Middle High German rōzen), or from Old Norse reyta (compare Norwegian røyta, Swedish röta); all from Proto-Germanic *rautijaną (“to make mellow or soft”), from Proto-Indo-European *rewd- (“to tear; rend; rip”). Related to rot.
This word in other languages
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 “ret”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹɛt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “RS” - see the side-by-side comparison. ret vs RS
- 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.