rife
/ɹaɪf/
"rife" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rife” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,975 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #23,975
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things).
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rife |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɹaɪf/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #23,975 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rife” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for rife is 4 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹaɪf/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,975 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for rife, with forms such as "irfe", "rfie", and "rief". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Rio", "rip", "rig", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English rife, from Old English rīfe, rȳfe (“rife, abundant, frequent”), from Proto-West Germanic *rīb, from Proto-Germanic *rībaz (“generous”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to tear (off), rip”). Cognate with West Frisian rju (“rife, much”… The correct English form is rife, spelled R-I-F-E.
Definition
- 1Widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things).
- 2Abounding; present in large numbers, plentiful.
- 3Full of (mostly unpleasant or harmful things).
- 4Having power; active; nimble.
Etymology
From Middle English rife, from Old English rīfe, rȳfe (“rife, abundant, frequent”), from Proto-West Germanic *rīb, from Proto-Germanic *rībaz (“generous”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to tear (off), rip”). Cognate with West Frisian rju (“rife, much”), Dutch rijf (“abundant, copious”), Low German rive (“abundant, munificent”), Icelandic rífur (“rife, munificent”), Faroese ríviligur (“plentiful, abundant”), Faroese rívan (“abundantly”), Icelandic reifa (“to bestow”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: irfe,rfie,rief,riffe,rrife
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of rife - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “rife”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-I-F-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹaɪf/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Rio” - see the side-by-side comparison. rife vs Rio
- 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.