romance
/rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s/
"romance" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“romance” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,188 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #4,188
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An intimate relationship between two people; a love affair.
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 | romance |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #4,188 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “romance” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for romance is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,188 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1An intimate relationship between two people; a love affair.
- 2A strong obsession or attachment for something or someone.
- 3Idealized love which is pure or beautiful.
- 4A story, novel, film, etc., centred around an idealized love relationship.
- 5A story relating to chivalry; a story involving knights, heroes, adventures, quests, etc.
- 6A tale of high adventure.
- 7A mysterious, exciting, or fascinating quality.
- 8A literary or filmic genre about idealized love.
- 9An embellished account of something; an idealized lie.
- 10An adventure, or series of extraordinary events, resembling those narrated in romances.
- 11A dreamy, imaginative habit of mind; a disposition to ignore what is real.
- 12A sentimental piece of music; a romanza.
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.
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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Using “romance”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-O-M-A-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /rə(ʊ)ˈman(t)s/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Romans” - see the side-by-side comparison. romance vs Romans
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.