retarding
"retarding" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“retarding” is uncommon English (frequency #98,648 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,648
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - A slowing or hindrance.
Corpus desk
Index EN-retarding · retarding · English
retarding · rank #98,648 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #98,648
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH retinoblastoma
Nearest frequency peer: retinoblastoma (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “retarding”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- regenerator
regenerator
1,360 corpus weight
- reimbursable
reimbursable
1,358 corpus weight
- retarding
retarding
1,353 corpus weight
- retinoblast…
retinoblastoma
1,352 corpus weight
- rheological
rheological
1,350 corpus weight
- Rigsby
Rigsby
1,346 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “retarding” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | retarding |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #98,648 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “retarding” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
retarding is uncommon English at frequency #98,648 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A slowing or hindrance.".
Zero misspellings are on record for retarding in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is retarding, spelled R-E-T-A-R-D-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1A slowing or hindrance.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how retarding appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It resembled them in the sense that it was not ended, when it was past, but continued to unfold, in Watt's head, from beginning to end, over and over again, the complex connexions of its lights and shadows, the passing from silence to sound and from sound to silence, the stillness before the movement and the stillness after, the quickenings and retardings…
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "retarding", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.