ruinous
/ˈɹuː.ɪnəs/
"ruinous" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ruinous” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #42,393. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #42,393
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Causing ruin; destructive, calamitous.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ruinous · ruinous · English
ruinous · rank #42,393 · 9 variants · 2 confusables
- FREQ-MID #42,393
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH Sadat
Nearest frequency peer: Sadat (+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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “ruinous”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Romulus
Romulus
57,612 corpus weight
- ruinous
ruinous
57,608 corpus weight
- Sadat
Sadat
57,607 corpus weight
- saintly
saintly
57,606 corpus weight
- scalability
scalability
57,604 corpus weight
- Schindler
Schindler
57,603 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “ruinous” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ruinous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈɹuː.ɪnəs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #42,393 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ruinous” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around ruinous (IPA /ˈɹuː.ɪnəs/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #42,393 among 3,094 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for ruinous, with forms such as "riunous", "rruinous", and "ruinnous". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "ruins", "Rhinos", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ruynous, from Old French ruinos, ruineus, from Latin ruīnōsus. By surface analysis, ruin + -ous. The correct English form is ruinous, spelled R-U-I-N-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Causing ruin; destructive, calamitous.
- 2Extremely costly; so expensive as to cause financial ruin.
- 3Characterized by ruin; ruined; dilapidated; as, an edifice, bridge, or wall in a ruinous state.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ruinous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They were forced to completely replace the roof at ruinous expense.
We are rapidly reversing the economic calamity we inherited from the previous administration, including ruinous price increases and record-setting inflation, inflation like we've never had before.
Etymology
From Middle English ruynous, from Old French ruinos, ruineus, from Latin ruīnōsus. By surface analysis, ruin + -ous.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- riunous
- rruinous
- ruinnous
- ruinosu
- ruinouss
- ruinuos
- ruionus
- runious
- urinous
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ruinous - 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ruinous", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "ruinous". Here's where to go from here.
- "ruinous" maps to 2 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "ruins". View pair
- 9 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #42,393 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "R" letter cohort. R–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.