ridicule
/ˈɹɪdɪkjuːl/
"ridicule" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ridicule” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #18,679 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #18,679
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ridicule |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈɹɪdɪkjuːl/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #18,679 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ridicule” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ridicule is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹɪdɪkjuːl/. Corpus data places it at rank #18,679 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for ridicule, with forms such as "irdicule", "rdiicule", and "ridciule". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: The obsolete adjective is borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”). The noun is either from French, noun use of adjective, or from Latin rīdiculum, noun use of neuter o… The correct English form is ridicule, spelled R-I-D-I-C-U-L-E.
Definition
- 1To criticize or disapprove of someone or something through scornful jocularity; to make fun of.
Etymology
The obsolete adjective is borrowed from French ridicule, from Latin rīdiculus (“laughable, comical, amusing, absurd, ridiculous”), from ridere (“to laugh”). The noun is either from French, noun use of adjective, or from Latin rīdiculum, noun use of neuter of rīdiculus. The verb is from the noun or else from French ridiculer, from ridicule.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: irdicule,rdiicule,ridciule,riddicule,ridiccule,ridiclue,ridicuel,ridiculle,ridiucle,riidcule,rridicule
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ridicule - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
How do you spell "ridicule"?
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Using “ridicule”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-I-D-I-C-U-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹɪdɪkjuːl/ (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.