romance

/rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s/

//rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s// noun

"romance" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“romance” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,188. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,188
frequency rank, English
3,094
“R” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
7
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An intimate relationship between two people; a love affair.

Corpus desk

Index EN-romance · romance · English

romance · rank #4,188 · 11 variants · 7 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,188
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,094
  • PHOTO-FINISH rick

Nearest frequency peer: rick (-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 “romance”

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

corpus weight

What this shows “romance” 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).

romance vs Romans
57% similar
romance vs romano
71% similar
romance vs Romani
57% similar

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

Key facts for romance
PropertyValue
Headwordromance
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s/
Letters7
Frequency rank#4,188
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs7
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “romance”

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).romancelands here:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “rick” (#4,187), “someone's” (#4,189), “submitted” (#4,190). Among 3,094 “R” headwords, “romance” is #4,188. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around romance (IPA /rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,188 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 12 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for romance, with forms such as "ormance", "rmoance", and "roamnce". 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 7 confusable-pair relationships, "Romans", "romano", "Romani", 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 romauns, roumance, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French romanz, romans (the vernacular language of France, as opposed to Latin), from Medieval Latin rōmānicē, Vulgar Latin rōmānicē (“in the Roman language”, adverb), from Latin rōmān… The correct English form is romance, spelled R-O-M-A-N-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    An intimate relationship between two people; a love affair.
  2. 2
    A strong obsession or attachment for something or someone.
  3. 3
    Idealized love which is pure or beautiful.
  4. 4
    A story, novel, film, etc., centred around an idealized love relationship.
  5. 5
    A story relating to chivalry; a story involving knights, heroes, adventures, quests, etc.
  6. 6
    A tale of high adventure.
  7. 7
    A mysterious, exciting, or fascinating quality.
  8. 8
    A literary or filmic genre about idealized love.
  9. 9
    An embellished account of something; an idealized lie.
  10. 10
    An adventure, or series of extraordinary events, resembling those narrated in romances.
  11. 11
    A dreamy, imaginative habit of mind; a disposition to ignore what is real.
  12. 12
    A sentimental piece of music; a romanza.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Everybody's working for the weekend Everybody wants a new romance.
  2. `Will you undertake the task? We give you complete freedom, and as a reward you will, we believe, have the credit of presenting to the world the most wonderful history, as distinguished from romance, that its records can show.'

Etymology

From Middle English romauns, roumance, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French romanz, romans (the vernacular language of France, as opposed to Latin), from Medieval Latin rōmānicē, Vulgar Latin rōmānicē (“in the Roman language”, adverb), from Latin rōmānicus (“roman”, adjective) from rōmānus (“a Roman”). Doublet of Romansch.

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ormance
  • rmoance
  • roamnce
  • romacne
  • romancce
  • romanec
  • romannce
  • romence
  • rommance
  • romnace
  • rromance

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of romance - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

ormance2rmoance2roamnce2romacne2romancce1romanec2romannce1romence1
Edit distance from "romance"

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 "romance"?
"romance" is spelled R-O-M-A-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is /rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s/.
What does "romance" mean?
As a noun, "romance" means: An intimate relationship between two people; a love affair.
What words are commonly confused with "romance"?
"romance" is commonly confused with "Romans", "romano", "Romani". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "romance"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "romance" is /rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s/. 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 "romance"?
From Middle English romauns, roumance, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French romanz, romans (the vernacular language of France, as opposed to Latin), from Medieval Latin rōmānicē, Vulgar Latin rōmānicē (“in the Roman language”, adverb), from L... 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 "romance", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list