rickets
/ˈɹɪkɪts/
"rickets" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rickets” is uncommon English (frequency #58,980 among 21,470 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,980
- frequency rank, English
- 21,470
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D, causing soft or weak bones.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rickets |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹɪkɪts/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #58,980 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rickets” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
rickets is uncommon English at frequency #58,980 among 21,470 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɹɪkɪts/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D, causing soft or weak bones.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for rickets, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Unknown. Originally a local name for the disease in Dorset and Somerset, England. Occasionally postulated to be derived from a Dorsetian dialectal term *rucket (“to breathe with difficulty, wheeze”), but the semantic connection is tenuous. See rachitis, but… The correct English form is rickets, spelled R-I-C-K-E-T-S.
Definition
- 1A disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D, causing soft or weak bones.
Etymology
Unknown. Originally a local name for the disease in Dorset and Somerset, England. Occasionally postulated to be derived from a Dorsetian dialectal term *rucket (“to breathe with difficulty, wheeze”), but the semantic connection is tenuous. See rachitis, but the medical name was chosen purposefully by English physician Daniel Whistler from phonetic similarity to rickets.
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.
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Using “rickets”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-I-C-K-E-T-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹɪkɪts/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.