retina
/ˈɹɛt.ɪ.nə/
"retina" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“retina” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #17,227. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #17,227
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The thin layer of cells at the back of the eyeball that contains rods and cones sensitive to light, which trigger nerve impulses that pass via the optic nerve to the brain, where a visual image is ...
Corpus desk
Index EN-retina · retina · English
retina · rank #17,227 · 7 variants · 18 confusables
- FREQ-MID #17,227
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 18 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH riff
Nearest frequency peer: riff (+2 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 “retina”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- recharge
recharge
82,779 corpus weight
- reliably
reliably
82,777 corpus weight
- retina
retina
82,774 corpus weight
- riff
riff
82,772 corpus weight
- rosen
rosen
82,771 corpus weight
- Rossi
Rossi
82,770 corpus weight
What this shows “retina” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | retina |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹɛt.ɪ.nə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #17,227 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “retina”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around retina (IPA /ˈɹɛt.ɪ.nə/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #17,227 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Dominant gloss: "The thin layer of cells at the back of the eyeball that contains rods and cones sensitive to light, which trigger nerve impulses that pass via the optic nerve to the brain, where a visual image is ...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for retina, with forms such as "ertina", "reitna", and "retinna". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "Rina", "retire", "rewind", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English rethina, borrowing from Medieval Latin rētīna (“retina”, feminine noun), ellipsis of tunica rētīna (“net-like tunic”), used to describe the blood vessel system at the back of the eye. The phrase is attested in the 12th century in Guillel… The correct English form is retina, spelled R-E-T-I-N-A.
Definition
- 1The thin layer of cells at the back of the eyeball that contains rods and cones sensitive to light, which trigger nerve impulses that pass via the optic nerve to the brain, where a visual image is formed.
Etymology
From Middle English rethina, borrowing from Medieval Latin rētīna (“retina”, feminine noun), ellipsis of tunica rētīna (“net-like tunic”), used to describe the blood vessel system at the back of the eye. The phrase is attested in the 12th century in Guillelmus the abbot and Gerard of Cremona—the latter may have created this phrase as a translation for Arabic طَبَقَة شَبَكِيَّة (ṭabaqa šabakiyya) "net-like layer", which translates Ancient Greek ἀμφιβληστροειδής χῐτών (amphiblēstroeidḗs khĭtṓn, “retina”), which is attested in the ancient medical writer Galen.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ertina
- reitna
- retinna
- retnia
- rettina
- rretina
- rteina
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of retina - 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.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "retina", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).