roughness
/ˈɹʌf.nəs/
"roughness" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“roughness” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #36,741 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #36,741
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The property of being rough, coarseness.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | roughness |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹʌf.nəs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #36,741 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “roughness” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for roughness is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɹʌf.nəs/. Corpus data places it at rank #36,741 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for roughness, with forms such as "orughness", "roguhness", and "rougghness". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English roughnes /roughnesse. By surface analysis, rough + -ness. Compare Old English hrēohnes (“roughness”). The correct English form is roughness, spelled R-O-U-G-H-N-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1The property of being rough, coarseness.
- 2Something that is rough; a rough spot.
- 3Roughage; coarse fodder.
- 4Abundance, especially of food.
- 5A measure of how rough something is, such as a surface
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English roughnes /roughnesse. By surface analysis, rough + -ness. Compare Old English hrēohnes (“roughness”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: orughness,roguhness,rougghness,roughenss,roughhness,roughnes,roughnness,roughnses,rougnhess,rouhgness,rroughness,ruoghness
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of roughness - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “roughness”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-O-U-G-H-N-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹʌf.nəs/ (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.