rope
/ɹoʊp/noun, verb
rope is spelled R-O-P-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,456th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, rope means “Thick strings, yarn, monofilaments, metal wires, or strands of other cordage that are twisted together to form a stronger line” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rope is ropes.
How many letters and syllables are in rope?
| Letters | 4: R-O-P-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,456th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is rope?
Rope appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,456th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce rope?
- UK /ɹəʊp/
- US /ɹoʊp/
- Australia /ɹəʉp/
Rope has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-rope.wav, En-us-rope.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with rope?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rope from its last stressed vowel (/oʊp/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: pore, repo, oper.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of rope
- ropes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- roping participle, present
- roped participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does rope mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Thick strings, yarn, monofilaments, metal wires, or strands of other cordage that are twisted together to form a stronger line.
Nylon rope is usually stronger than similar rope made of plant fibers.
- 2
An individual length of such material.
The swinging bridge is constructed of 40 logs and 30 ropes.
- 3
A cohesive strand of something.
The duchess wore a rope of pearls to the soirée.
- 4
datedA continuous stream.
- 5
A hard line drive.
He hit a rope past third and into the corner.
- 6
A long thin segment of soft clay, either extruded or formed by hand.
- 7
A data structure resembling a string, using a concatenation tree in which each leaf represents a character.
- 8
A kind of chaff (material dropped to interfere with radar) consisting of foil strips with paper chutes attached.
- 9
The small intestines.
the ropes of birds
verb
- 1
To tie (something) with rope.
The robber roped the victims.
- 2
To throw a rope (or something similar, e.g. a lasso, cable, wire, etc.) around (something).
The cowboy roped the calf.
- 3
To climb by means of a rope or ropes.
- 4
To be formed into rope; to draw out or extend into a filament or thread.
- 5
To pull or restrain (the horse one is riding) to prevent it from winning a race.
Others, a shade more advanced, have been known to bribe a jockey to "hold," "rope" a horse, or a stableman to poison or stupefy him.
- 6
To commit suicide, particularly by hanging.
My life is a mess; I might as well rope.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Rope in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | corde , cordage |
| German | Seil, Tau, Schnur |
| Portuguese | corda |
| Spanish | soga, maroma, toa, hico, jarcia, lía |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does rope come from?
From Middle English rop, rope, from Old English rāp (“rope, cord, cable”), from Proto-West Germanic *raip, from Proto-Germanic *raipaz, *raipą (“rope, cord, band, ringlet”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁roypnós (“strap, band, rope”), from *h₁reyp- (“to peel off, tear; border, edge, strip”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).