roar
/ɹɔː/
"roar" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“roar” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #11,282. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #11,282
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To make a loud, deep cry, especially from pain, anger, or other strong emotion.
Corpus desk
Index EN-roar · roar · English
roar · rank #11,282 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #11,282
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH richest
Nearest frequency peer: richest (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “roar”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- responsive
responsive
88,721 corpus weight
- richest
richest
88,720 corpus weight
- roar
roar
88,719 corpus weight
- Ronnie
Ronnie
88,718 corpus weight
- Rooney
Rooney
88,717 corpus weight
- rot
rot
88,716 corpus weight
What this shows “roar” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | roar |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɹɔː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #11,282 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “roar”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around roar (IPA /ɹɔː/), averb. Corpus frequency is #11,282 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for roar, with forms such as "orar", "raor", and "roarr". 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. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "RR", "row", "rob", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English roren, raren, from Old English rārian (“to roar; wail; lament”), from Proto-West Germanic *rairōn, from Proto-Germanic *rairōną (“to bellow; roar”), from Proto-Indo-European *rey- (“to shout; bellow; yell; bark”), perhaps of imitative or… The correct English form is roar, spelled R-O-A-R.
Definition
- 1To make a loud, deep cry, especially from pain, anger, or other strong emotion.
- 2To laugh in a particularly loud manner.
- 3Of animals (especially a lion), to make a loud deep noise.
- 4Generally, of inanimate objects etc., to make a loud resounding noise.
- 5To proceed vigorously.
- 6To cry aloud; to proclaim loudly.
- 7To be boisterous; to be disorderly.
- 8To make a loud noise in breathing, as horses do when they have a certain disease.
- 9To cry.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how roar appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Sole on the barren ſands the ſuff'ring chief / Roar'd out for anguiſh, and indulg'd his grief.
The audience roared at his jokes.
Etymology
From Middle English roren, raren, from Old English rārian (“to roar; wail; lament”), from Proto-West Germanic *rairōn, from Proto-Germanic *rairōną (“to bellow; roar”), from Proto-Indo-European *rey- (“to shout; bellow; yell; bark”), perhaps of imitative origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian roorje (“to roar”), German röhren (“to roar”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- orar
- raor
- roarr
- rora
- rroar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of roar - 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "roar", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).