rotund
/ɹəʊˈtʌnd/
"rotund" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rotund” is an uncommon English word, ranked #69,405 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #69,405
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Having a round, spherical or curved shape; circular; orbicular.
| 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
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for rotund is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹəʊˈtʌnd/. Corpus data places it at rank #69,405 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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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Using “rotund”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-O-T-U-N-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹəʊˈtʌnd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.