ribald
/ˈɹɪb.əld/
"ribald" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ribald” is an uncommon English word, ranked #86,701 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #86,701
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Coarsely, vulgarly, or lewdly amusing; referring to sexual matters in a rude or irreverent way.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ribald |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɹɪb.əld/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #86,701 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ribald” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ribald is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹɪb.əld/. Corpus data places it at rank #86,701 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Coarsely, vulgarly, or lewdly amusing; referring to sexual matters in a rude or irreverent way.".
ribald doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ribald, from Old French ribaud, ribauld (“rogue, scoundrel”) ( > English ribaud), from Old French riber (“to be licentious”), from Frankish *rīban (“to copulate, be in heat”, literally “to rub”), from Proto-Germanic *wrībaną (“to turn, t… The correct English form is ribald, spelled R-I-B-A-L-D.
Definition
- 1Coarsely, vulgarly, or lewdly amusing; referring to sexual matters in a rude or irreverent way.
Etymology
From Middle English ribald, from Old French ribaud, ribauld (“rogue, scoundrel”) ( > English ribaud), from Old French riber (“to be licentious”), from Frankish *rīban (“to copulate, be in heat”, literally “to rub”), from Proto-Germanic *wrībaną (“to turn, twist, writhe”), from Proto-Indo-European *werp-, *werb- (“to turn, twist”) + Old French -aud, from Frankish *-wald. Related to Old High German rīban (“to rub”), German reiben (“to rub”), Dutch wrijven (“to rub”). Compare also Old High German hrība (“prostitute”). See also English wrap.
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 “ribald”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-I-B-A-L-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹɪb.əld/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.