rickets
/ˈɹɪkɪts/noun, verb
rickets is spelled R-I-C-K-E-T-S: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,714th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, rickets means “A disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D, causing soft or weak bones” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in rickets?
| Letters | 7: R-I-C-K-E-T-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 58,714th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is rickets?
Rickets appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,714th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce rickets?
- /ˈɹɪkɪts/
Rickets has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-rickets.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with rickets?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as rickets.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: sticker.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
What does rickets mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D, causing soft or weak bones.
verb
- 1
third-person singular simple present indicative of ricket
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Rickets in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | rachitisme |
| German | Rachitis, Rhachitis, englische Krankheit |
| Portuguese | raquitismo |
| Spanish | raquitismo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does rickets come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).