roast

/ɹoʊst/

//ɹoʊst// verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"roast" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“roast” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #8,721. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,721
frequency rank, English
3,094
“R” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance.

Corpus desk

Index EN-roast · roast · English

roast · rank #8,721 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,721
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,094
  • PHOTO-FINISH Robertson

Nearest frequency peer: Robertson (+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 “roast”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “roast” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

roast vs rot
60% similar
roast vs ROS
0% similar
roast vs rose
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for roast
PropertyValue
Headwordroast
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/ɹoʊst/
Letters5
Frequency rank#8,721
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “roast”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).roastlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “Robertson” (#8,722), “Reuters” (#8,719), “rubbish” (#8,723). Among 3,094 “R” headwords, “roast” is #8,721. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around roast (IPA /ɹoʊst/), averb. Corpus frequency is #8,721 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for roast, with forms such as "orast", "raost", and "roasst". 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, "rot", "ROS", "rose", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English rosten, a borrowing from Old French rostir (“to roast, to torture with fire”), from Frankish *rōstijan (“to roast, broil”), from Proto-Germanic *raustijaną (“to roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *rews- (“to crackle; roast”). Cognate with… The correct English form is roast, spelled R-O-A-S-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    To cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance.
  2. 2
    To cook by surrounding with hot embers, ashes, sand, etc.
  3. 3
    To process by drying through exposure to sun or artificial heat.
  4. 4
    To heat to excess; to heat violently; to burn.
  5. 5
    To admonish someone vigorously.
  6. 6
    To subject to bantering, severely criticize, sometimes as a comedy routine.
  7. 7
    To dissipate the volatile parts of by heat, as ores.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how roast appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. to roast meat on a spit
  2. to roast a potato in ashes

Etymology

From Middle English rosten, a borrowing from Old French rostir (“to roast, to torture with fire”), from Frankish *rōstijan (“to roast, broil”), from Proto-Germanic *raustijaną (“to roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *rews- (“to crackle; roast”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian rosterje (“to roast”), Dutch roosten, roosteren (“to roast”), German rösten (“to roast”). Displaced native Middle English breden, bræden (“to roast”), from Old English brǣdan, related to German braten (“to roast, grill”).

This word in other languages

asar(Español)rôtir(Français)braten(Deutsch)assar(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • orast
  • raost
  • roasst
  • roastt
  • roats
  • rosat
  • rroast

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of roast - 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.

orast2raost2roasst1roastt1roats2rosat2rroast1
Edit distance from "roast"

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 "roast"?
"roast" is spelled R-O-A-S-T. The IPA pronunciation is /ɹoʊst/.
What does "roast" mean?
As a verb, "roast" means: To cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance.
What words are commonly confused with "roast"?
"roast" is commonly confused with "rot", "ROS", "rose". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "roast"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "roast" is /ɹoʊst/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "roast"?
From Middle English rosten, a borrowing from Old French rostir (“to roast, to torture with fire”), from Frankish *rōstijan (“to roast, broil”), from Proto-Germanic *raustijaną (“to roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *rews- (“to crackle; roast”). Co... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "roast", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

salon#8,725pools#8,707tuned#8,735peaks#8,705

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

ninja7 variantsBiden7 variantsHayes7 variantsCOVID7 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list