roughshod
/ˈɹʌfʃɒd/
"roughshod" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“roughshod” is uncommon English (frequency #71,076 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,076
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of a horse: having hooves shod with horseshoes that have calks or projecting parts to prevent slipping.
Corpus desk
Index EN-roughshod · roughshod · English
roughshod · rank #71,076 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,076
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH Rosehill
Nearest frequency peer: Rosehill (-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 “roughshod”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- rightness
rightness
28,931 corpus weight
- Rosehill
Rosehill
28,927 corpus weight
- roughshod
roughshod
28,925 corpus weight
- Rozier
Rozier
28,923 corpus weight
- Ruto
Ruto
28,922 corpus weight
- SAHM
SAHM
28,920 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “roughshod” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | roughshod |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɹʌfʃɒd/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #71,076 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “roughshod” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
roughshod is uncommon English at frequency #71,076 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈɹʌfʃɒd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for roughshod in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From rough + shod. The correct English form is roughshod, spelled R-O-U-G-H-S-H-O-D.
Definition
- 1Of a horse: having hooves shod with horseshoes that have calks or projecting parts to prevent slipping.
- 2Brutal or domineering.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how roughshod appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The horses fell down three times, the roads being slippery, and we walked three miles to Linlithgow. There we waited two hours, to have the fresh horses roughshod.
Those who have followed a French army well know that their horses are always rough-shod. [...] Horses can bear cold when properly fed, and if they had not been rough-shod there were farriers attached to the army.
Etymology
From rough + shod.
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 "roughshod", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #71,076 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.