Ruy Lopez
"ruy-lopez" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Ruy Lopez” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A common chess opening, an Open Game characterized by the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, in which White moves king's bishop to the fifth rank.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ruy-lopez · Ruy Lopez · English
Ruy Lopez · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Ruy Lopez |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Ruy Lopez” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Ruy Lopez is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A common chess opening, an Open Game characterized by the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, in which White moves king's bishop to the fifth rank.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Ruy Lopez, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Named for Ruy López de Segura, a Spanish priest who wrote a book about chess openings in 1561. The correct English form is Ruy Lopez, spelled R-U-Y- -L-O-P-E-Z.
Definition
- 1A common chess opening, an Open Game characterized by the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5, in which White moves king's bishop to the fifth rank.
Etymology
Named for Ruy López de Segura, a Spanish priest who wrote a book about chess openings in 1561.
Synonyms
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.