Russian roulette
Detailed reference entry for the English word "russian-roulette", 16-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "russian-roulette" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "russian-roulette" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“Russian roulette” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a proper noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A deadly game in which a person loads a single bullet in the cylinder of a revolver, spins the cylinder so that the bullet's location is unknown, points the muzzle at his/her head, and pulls the tr...
Compare similar words
See how Russian roulette compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Russian roulette |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Russian roulette” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Russian roulette is 16 letters long, classified as a proper noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for Russian roulette in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From roulette, a game of chance involving a revolving wheel. The first description is apparently in "The Fatalist," an 1840 short story by Russian writer Mikhail Lermontov. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is Russian roulette, spelled R-U-S-S-I-A-N- -R-O-U-L-E-T-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A deadly game in which a person loads a single bullet in the cylinder of a revolver, spins the cylinder so that the bullet's location is unknown, points the muzzle at his/her head, and pulls the trigger. In its most lethal form, played by multiple participants each of whom takes a turn until the weapon discharges.
- 2Any activity, especially a needless one, that carries a high risk of death or disaster.
Etymology
From roulette, a game of chance involving a revolving wheel. The first description is apparently in "The Fatalist," an 1840 short story by Russian writer Mikhail Lermontov.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “Russian roulette, English word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/en/word/russian-roulette
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Using “Russian roulette”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-U-S-S-I-A-N- -R-O-U-L-E-T-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: