rye
/ɹaɪ/
"rye" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rye” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,628 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,628
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
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 | rye |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹaɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #14,628 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “rye” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for rye is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹaɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,628 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for rye in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wry", "r", "re", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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-Ge… The correct English form is rye, spelled R-Y-E.
Definition
- 1A grain used extensively in Europe for making bread, beer, and (now generally) for animal fodder.
- 2The grass Secale cereale from which the grain is obtained.
- 3Ellipsis of rye bread.
- 4Ellipsis of rye whiskey, whiskey made mainly or wholly from rye grain.
- 5A drink (serving) of rye whiskey.
- 6Caraway (from the mistaken assumption that the whole seeds, often used to season rye bread, are the rye itself)
- 7Ryegrass, any of the species of Lolium.
- 8A disease of hawks.
Etymology
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.
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); 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 “rye”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-Y-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹaɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “wry” - see the side-by-side comparison. rye vs wry
- 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.