rotter
"rotter" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rotter” is uncommon English (frequency #79,927 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,927
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A despicable, worthless person; a scoundrel.
Corpus desk
Index EN-rotter · rotter · English
rotter · rank #79,927 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #79,927
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH Rosner
Nearest frequency peer: Rosner (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “rotter”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- roon
roon
20,076 corpus weight
- Rosner
Rosner
20,075 corpus weight
- rotter
rotter
20,074 corpus weight
- rouble
rouble
20,073 corpus weight
- rudderless
rudderless
20,072 corpus weight
- rudimental
rudimental
20,071 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “rotter” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rotter |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #79,927 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “rotter” in English
Rare enough to double-check
rotter is uncommon English at frequency #79,927 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A despicable, worthless person; a scoundrel.".
Zero misspellings are on record for rotter in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From rot + -er. The correct English form is rotter, spelled R-O-T-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1A despicable, worthless person; a scoundrel.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how rotter appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Calvin could be anywhere in this zoo. I hope he at least has the sense to stay put, wherever he is. Where would the little rotter go if he was lost and separated from his stuffed toy?
Some Johnny with brains produces a hypothesis. Everybody calls him a rotter at first. But he remains calm in the face of opprobrium.
Etymology
From rot + -er.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "rotter", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).