retooling

/ɹiːˈtuːlɪŋ/

//ɹiːˈtuːlɪŋ// verb

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

The verdict

“retooling” is uncommon English (frequency #74,451 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#74,451
frequency rank, English
3,094
“R” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of retool

Corpus desk

Index EN-retooling · retooling · English

retooling · rank #74,451 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #74,451
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,094
  • PHOTO-FINISH rescission

Nearest frequency peer: rescission (-4 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.

Long-tail ranks near “retooling”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “retooling” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for retooling
PropertyValue
Headwordretooling
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/ɹiːˈtuːlɪŋ/
Letters9
Frequency rank#74,451
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “retooling” in English

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).retoolingfalls in this rarity band:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “rescission” (#74,447), “Rhona” (#74,455), “repossess” (#74,446). Among 3,094 “R” headwords, “retooling” is #74,451. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

retooling is uncommon English at frequency #74,451 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ɹiːˈtuːlɪŋ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "present participle and gerund of retool".

retooling has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From retool + -ing. The correct English form is retooling, spelled R-E-T-O-O-L-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of retool

Etymology

From retool + -ing.

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 "retooling"?
"retooling" is spelled R-E-T-O-O-L-I-N-G. The IPA pronunciation is /ɹiːˈtuːlɪŋ/.
What does "retooling" mean?
As a verb, "retooling" means: present participle and gerund of retool
How do you pronounce "retooling"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "retooling" is /ɹiːˈtuːlɪŋ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "retooling"?
From retool + -ing. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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 "retooling", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list