rotund
/ɹəʊˈtʌnd/
"rotund" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rotund” is uncommon English (frequency #69,405 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #69,405
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having a round, spherical or curved shape; circular; orbicular.
Corpus desk
Index EN-rotund · rotund · English
rotund · rank #69,405 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #69,405
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH runabout
Nearest frequency peer: runabout (+2 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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “rotund”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Rix
Rix
30,602 corpus weight
- rolly
rolly
30,600 corpus weight
- rotund
rotund
30,596 corpus weight
- runabout
runabout
30,594 corpus weight
- salvageable
salvageable
30,592 corpus weight
- sandcastle
sandcastle
30,591 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “rotund” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rotund |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɹəʊˈtʌnd/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #69,405 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rotund” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
rotund is uncommon English at frequency #69,405 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ɹəʊˈtʌnd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
rotund has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin rotundus (“round”), from Latin rota (“wheel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreth₂- (“to run, to roll”). Doublet of round. The correct English form is rotund, spelled R-O-T-U-N-D.
Definition
- 1Having a round, spherical or curved shape; circular; orbicular.
- 2Having a round body shape; portly or pudgy; obese.
- 3Full and rich; orotund; sonorous; full-toned.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how rotund appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He was a plump little man and we had been walking uphill at a pace—set by him—far too rapid for his short legs. He breathed stertorously, and half the drops which glimmered on his rotund face were not rain but sweat.
Convex preferences may have indifference curves that exhibit “flat spots,” while strictly convex preferences have indifference curves that are strictly rotund.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin rotundus (“round”), from Latin rota (“wheel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreth₂- (“to run, to roll”). Doublet of round.
This word in other languages
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 "rotund", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #69,405 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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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.