rev
/ɹɛv/
"rev" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rev” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,912 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #5,912
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To increase the speed of a motor, or to operate at a higher speed.
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 | rev |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹɛv/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #5,912 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rev” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for rev is 3 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɛv/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,912 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To increase the speed of a motor, or to operate at a higher speed.".
Zero misspellings are on record for rev in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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: Abbreviation of revolutions, rpm The correct English form is rev, spelled R-E-V.
Definition
- 1To increase the speed of a motor, or to operate at a higher speed.
Etymology
Abbreviation of revolutions, rpm
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 “rev”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-E-V - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹɛv/ (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. rev 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.