rye
/ɹaɪ/noun
rye is spelled R-Y-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, rye means “A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rye is ryes.
How many letters and syllables are in rye?
| Letters | 3: R-Y-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.3 times per million words; the 14,509th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| 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 rye?
Rye appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th 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 rye?
- /ɹaɪ/
Rye 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-us-rye.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with rye
Sounds like: wry (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: rie.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with rye?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as rye.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: yer.
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 rye
- ryes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does rye mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
They bought a sack of rye and a sack of wheat with the intent to try their hand at milling and baking.
- 2
The grass Secale cereale from which the grain is obtained.
This field will be planted to rye next spring.
- 3
Ellipsis of rye bread.
Customer: A tuna sandwich, please. Waiter: Sure, hon. You want that on white, wheat, or rye?
- 4
CanadaUSEllipsis of rye whiskey, whiskey made mainly or wholly from rye grain.
He likes any whiskey, but his favorite is rye.
- 5
CanadaUSA drink (serving) of rye whiskey.
I'll have a rye, neat, please.
- 6
proscribedCaraway (from the mistaken assumption that the whole seeds, often used to season rye bread, are the rye itself)
- 7
proscribedRyegrass, any of the species of Lolium.
- 8
A disease of hawks.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Rye in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the grass Secale cereale or its grains as food:
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 rye come from?
Inherited from Middle English rye, rie, from Old English ryġe, from Proto-West Germanic *rugi, from Proto-Germanic *rugiz. Germanic cognates include Dutch and West Frisian rogge, Low German Rogg, German Roggen, Rocken, Old Norse rugr (Danish rug, Swedish råg); non-Germanic cognates include Russian рожь (rožʹ) and Latvian rudzi.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).