ribose
/ˈɹaɪbəʊz/
"ribose" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ribose” is uncommon English (frequency #77,148 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,148
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A naturally occurring pentose sugar, which is a component of the nucleosides and nucleotides that constitute the nucleic acid biopolymer, RNA. It is also found in riboflavin.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ribose · ribose · English
ribose · rank #77,148 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,148
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH revivalist
Nearest frequency peer: revivalist (-3 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 “ribose”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- retractor
retractor
22,857 corpus weight
- revivalist
revivalist
22,856 corpus weight
- ribose
ribose
22,853 corpus weight
- Ringgold
Ringgold
22,850 corpus weight
- Rishikesh
Rishikesh
22,849 corpus weight
- RNR
RNR
22,847 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “ribose” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ribose |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹaɪbəʊz/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #77,148 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ribose” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ribose is uncommon English at frequency #77,148 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɹaɪbəʊz/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A naturally occurring pentose sugar, which is a component of the nucleosides and nucleotides that constitute the nucleic acid biopolymer, RNA. It is also found in riboflavin.".
ribose doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From German Ribose, formed from Ribonsäure, the first element of which comes from a rearrangement of English arabinose. The correct English form is ribose, spelled R-I-B-O-S-E.
Definition
- 1A naturally occurring pentose sugar, which is a component of the nucleosides and nucleotides that constitute the nucleic acid biopolymer, RNA. It is also found in riboflavin.
Etymology
From German Ribose, formed from Ribonsäure, the first element of which comes from a rearrangement of English arabinose.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ribose", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).