risk
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "risk", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "risk" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "risk" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
risk is aEnglishnoun. It means: The probability of a negative outcome to a decision or event. Pronounced /ɹɪsk/. It ranks #955 in English word frequency. Often confused with RS and RSS.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | risk |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹɪsk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #955 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for risk is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪsk/. Corpus data places it at rank #955 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for risk, with forms such as "irsk", "riks", and "riskk". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "RS", "RSS", "ROS", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From earlier risque, from Middle French risque, from Old Italian risco (“risk”) (modern Italian rischio) and rischiare (“to run into danger”). Displaced native Old English pleoh (“risk”) and plēon (“to risk”). speculation on earlier roots Most dictionaries … Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is risk, spelled R-I-S-K, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The probability of a negative outcome to a decision or event.
- 2The magnitude of possible loss consequent to a decision or event.
- 3The potential negative effect of an event, determined by multiplying the likelihood of the event occurring with its magnitude should it occur.
- 4A possible adverse event or outcome.
- 5A possible adverse event or outcome.
- 6A thing (from the perspective of how likely or unlikely it is to cause an adverse effect).
- 7A thing (from the perspective of how likely or unlikely it is to cause an adverse effect).
- 8A thing (from the perspective of how likely or unlikely it is to cause an adverse effect).
- 9A thing (from the perspective of how likely or unlikely it is to cause an adverse effect).
Etymology
From earlier risque, from Middle French risque, from Old Italian risco (“risk”) (modern Italian rischio) and rischiare (“to run into danger”). Displaced native Old English pleoh (“risk”) and plēon (“to risk”). speculation on earlier roots Most dictionaries consider the etymology of these Italian terms uncertain, but some suggest they perhaps come from Vulgar Latin *resecum (“that which cuts, rock, crag”) (> Medieval Latin resicu), from Latin resecō (“cut off, loose, curtail”, verb), in the sense of that which is a danger to boating or shipping; or from Ancient Greek ῥιζικόν (rhizikón, “root, radical, hazard”). A few dictionaries express more certainty. Collins says the Italian risco comes from Ancient Greek ῥίζα (rhíza, “cliff”) due to the hazards of sailing along rocky coasts. The American Heritage says it probably comes from Byzantine Greek ῥιζικό, ριζικό (rhizikó, rizikó, “sustenance obtained by a soldier through his own initiative, fortune”), from Arabic رِزْق (rizq, “sustenance, that which God allots”), from Classical Syriac ܪܘܙܝܩܐ ,ܪܙܩܐ (rezqā, rōzīqā, “daily ration”), from Middle Persian [script needed] (rōčig), from Middle Persian [script needed] (rōč, “day”), from Old Persian [script needed] (*raučah-), from Proto-Indo-European *lewk-. Karla Mallette derives the word from Arabic رِزْق (rizq, “sustenance, that which God allots”) via Sabir. Cognate with Spanish riesgo, Portuguese risco
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: irsk,riks,riskk,rissk,rrisk,rsik
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for risk
Misspelling Variants of "risk"
Frequency rank: #955 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: