retelling

noun

"retelling" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“retelling” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #30,940. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#30,940
frequency rank, English
3,094
“R” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
6
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A new, changed, or adapted version of a story.

Corpus desk

Index EN-retelling · retelling · English

retelling · rank #30,940 · 12 variants · 6 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #30,940
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,094
  • PHOTO-FINISH reuniting

Nearest frequency peer: reuniting (+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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “retelling”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “retelling” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

retelling vs revealing
78% similar
retelling vs reeling
78% similar
retelling vs recalling
78% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for retelling
PropertyValue
Headwordretelling
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#30,940
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “retelling”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).retellinglands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “reuniting” (#30,941), “redness” (#30,937), “Roh” (#30,943). Among 3,094 “R” headwords, “retelling” is #30,940. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around retelling, anoun. Corpus frequency is #30,940 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A new, changed, or adapted version of a story.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for retelling, with forms such as "ertelling", "reetlling", and "retelilng". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "revealing", "reeling", "recalling", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is retelling, spelled R-E-T-E-L-L-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    A new, changed, or adapted version of a story.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how retelling appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The new film is a needless retelling of what was already a cinematic classic.
  2. Like those of other saints, Mira Bai's life story lies within a number of retellings, each more detailed than the last, so that her biography now includes burnishings that probably would not pass any historian's test.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ertelling
  • reetlling
  • retelilng
  • reteling
  • retellign
  • retellingg
  • retellinng
  • retellnig
  • retleling
  • rettelling
  • rretelling
  • rteelling

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of retelling - 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.

ertelling2reetlling2retelilng2reteling1retellign2retellingg1retellinng1retellnig2
Edit distance from "retelling"

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

How do you spell "retelling"?
"retelling" is spelled R-E-T-E-L-L-I-N-G.
What does "retelling" mean?
As a noun, "retelling" means: A new, changed, or adapted version of a story.
What words are commonly confused with "retelling"?
"retelling" is commonly confused with "revealing", "reeling", "recalling". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "retelling" come from?
"retelling" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "retelling", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list