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rose

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

4 characters

Language

English

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "rose", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "rose" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "rose" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

rose is aEnglishnoun. It means: A shrub of the genus Rosa, with red, pink, white or yellow flowers. Pronounced /ɹəʊz/. It ranks #1,614 in English word frequency. Often confused with RS and row.

Key facts for rose
PropertyValue
Headwordrose
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ɹəʊz/
Letters4
Frequency rank#1,614
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of rose in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for rose is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹəʊz/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,614 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for rose, with forms such as "orse", "roes", and "rosse". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "RS", "row", "Roy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English rose, roose, from Old English rōse, but with its vowel influenced by Old French rose, both from Latin rosa. cognates and more remote and uncertain etymology The Latin is of uncertain origin, but likely via Oscan from Ancient Greek ῥόδον … Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is rose, spelled R-O-S-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A shrub of the genus Rosa, with red, pink, white or yellow flowers.
  2. 2
    A flower of the rose plant.
  3. 3
    A plant or species in the rose family. (Rosaceae)
  4. 4
    Something resembling a rose flower, such as a compass rose.
  5. 5
    A bouquet of circles.
  6. 6
    The rose flower, usually depicted with five petals, five barbs, and a circular seed.
  7. 7
    A purplish-red or pink color, the color of some rose flowers.
  8. 8
    A round nozzle for a sprinkling can or hose.
  9. 9
    The usually circular base of a light socket in the ceiling, from which the fitting or chandelier is suspended.
  10. 10
    Any of various large, red-bodied, papilionid butterflies of the genus Pachliopta.
  11. 11
    Any of various flower-like polar graphs of sinusoids or their squares.
  12. 12
    A graph with only one vertex.
  13. 13
    A fairy chess piece that can make knight moves in a circular path.
  14. 14
    A type of sex toy shaped like a rose.

Etymology

From Middle English rose, roose, from Old English rōse, but with its vowel influenced by Old French rose, both from Latin rosa. cognates and more remote and uncertain etymology The Latin is of uncertain origin, but likely via Oscan from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”) (Aeolic ϝρόδον (wródon)), from Old Persian *vr̥dah (“flower”) (compare Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬜𐬀- (var^əδa-), Sogdian [script needed] (ward), Parthian wâr, late Middle Persian [Term?] (gwl /⁠gul⁠/), Persian گل (gol, “rose, flower”), and Middle Iranian borrowings including Old Armenian վարդ (vard, “rose”), Aramaic וַרְדָּא (wardā) / ܘܪܕܐ (wardā), Arabic وَرْدَة (warda), Hebrew וֶרֶד (wéreḏ)), from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dʰos (“sweetbriar”) (compare Old English word (“thornbush”), Latin rubus (“bramble”), Albanian hurdhe (“ivy”)). Possibly ultimately a derivation from a verb for "to grow" only attested in Indo-Iranian (*Hwardʰ-, compare Sanskrit वर्धति (vardhati), with relatives in Avestan).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: orse,roes,rosse,rrose,rsoe

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for rose

Misspelling Variants of "rose"

orse4roes4rosse5rrose5rsoe4
Misspelling Variants of "rose"

Frequency rank: #1,614 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "rose"?
"rose" is spelled R-O-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ɹəʊz/.
What does "rose" mean?
As a noun, "rose" means: A shrub of the genus Rosa, with red, pink, white or yellow flowers.
What words are commonly confused with "rose"?
"rose" is commonly confused with "RS", "row", "Roy". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "rose"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rose" is /ɹəʊz/. 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 "rose"?
From Middle English rose, roose, from Old English rōse, but with its vowel influenced by Old French rose, both from Latin rosa. cognates and more remote and uncertain etymology The Latin is of uncertain origin, but likely via Oscan from Ancient Gr... 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.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.