ruse
/ɹuːz/
"ruse" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ruse” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,664 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #23,664
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs.
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 | ruse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹuːz/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #23,664 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ruse” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ruse is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹuːz/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,664 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.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for ruse, with forms such as "rruse", "rsue", and "rues". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "rye", "rut", "rush", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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, guil… The correct English form is ruse, spelled R-U-S-E.
Definition
- 1A turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs.
- 2An action intended to deceive; a trick.
- 3Cunning, guile, trickery.
Etymology
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. Compare Middle French ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”); see further above.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: rruse,rsue,rues,russe,urse
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ruse - 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 “ruse”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-U-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹuːz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “rye” - see the side-by-side comparison. ruse vs rye
- 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.