ribbing
/ˈɹɪbɪŋ/
"ribbing" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ribbing” is uncommon English (frequency #51,361 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,361
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - jesting; joking
Corpus desk
Index EN-ribbing · ribbing · English
ribbing · rank #51,361 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #51,361
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH rhodium
Nearest frequency peer: rhodium (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “ribbing”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Revlon
Revlon
48,643 corpus weight
- rhodium
rhodium
48,641 corpus weight
- ribbing
ribbing
48,640 corpus weight
- Ricki
Ricki
48,639 corpus weight
- Rida
Rida
48,638 corpus weight
- righty
righty
48,636 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “ribbing” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ribbing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɹɪbɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #51,361 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ribbing” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ribbing is uncommon English at frequency #51,361 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈɹɪbɪŋ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "jesting; joking".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ribbing, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From rib (“tease”, verb) + -ing; from the common practice of tickling the ribs to cause laughter. The correct English form is ribbing, spelled R-I-B-B-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1jesting; joking
Etymology
From rib (“tease”, verb) + -ing; from the common practice of tickling the ribs to cause laughter.
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 "ribbing", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).