ruse
/ɹuz/noun, verb
ruse is spelled R-U-S-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,536th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ruse means “An action intended to deceive; a trick” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ruse is ruses.
How many letters and syllables are in ruse?
| Letters | 4: R-U-S-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words; the 23,536th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ruse?
Ruse appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,536th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ruse?
- UK /ɹuːz/
- British /ɹʉwz/
- US /ɹuz/
Ruse has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-ruse.ogg, En-us-ruse.ogg, En-au-ruse.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with ruse?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ruse from its last stressed vowel (/uz/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: sure, user, suer.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ruse
- ruses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- rusing participle, present
- rused participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ruse mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
archaicrareA turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs.
- 2
An action intended to deceive; a trick.
Near-synonyms: ploy, stratagem, artifice
- 3
Cunning, guile, trickery.
verb
- 1
To deceive or trick using a ruse.
- 2
archaicrareOf an animal: to turn or double back to elude hunters or their hunting dogs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ruse in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | escaramuza , asechanza, artimaña, trácala, truco, zancadilla |
| French | ruse, finasserie |
| German | Kniff, List, Finte , Betrügerei, Trick, Ablenkungsmanöver |
| Portuguese | ardil, artimanha, lábia, treta, truque, estrangeirinha |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ruse come from?
From Middle English rūse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; circuitous course taken by a hunter to pursue a game animal”), from Old French rëuse, ruse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; trickery”) (modern French ruse (“trick, ruse; cunning, guile”)), from ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”), possibly from Latin rursus (“backward; on the contrary; again, in return”) or Latin recūsāre, from recūsō (“to decline, refuse; to object to, protest, reject”). Doublet of recuse and rouse in the latter case. The verb is derived from the noun.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).