rigor
/ˈɹɪɡɚ/noun
rigor is spelled R-I-G-O-R: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,420th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “rigor vs rigour” about 110 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, rigor means “US spelling of rigour” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rigor is rigors.
How many letters and syllables are in rigor?
| Letters | 5: R-I-G-O-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.2 times per million words; the 26,420th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is rigor?
Rigor appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,420th 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 rigor?
- UK /ˈɹɪɡə/
- US /ˈɹɪɡɚ/
- Australia /ˈɹɪɡə/
Rigor 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: En-us-rigor.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-rigor.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with rigor
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: rigger, rigour (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: rigour.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with rigor?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rigor from its last stressed vowel (/ɪɡəɹ/):
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).
Forms of rigor
- rigors plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does rigor mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
USUS spelling of rigour.
- 2
informalEllipsis of rigor mortis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does rigor come from?
From Old French, from Latin rigor (“stiffness, rigidity, rigor, cold, harshness”), from rigere (“to be rigid”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).