sadhu
/ˈsɑːduː/
"sadhu" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sadhu” is uncommon English (frequency #75,373 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #75,373
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An ascetic or practitioner of yoga (yogi) who has given up pursuit of the first three Hindu goals of life: kama (enjoyment), artha (practical objectives) and even dharma (duty).
Corpus desk
Index EN-sadhu · sadhu · English
sadhu · rank #75,373 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #75,373
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH RTÉ
Nearest frequency peer: RTÉ (-2 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “sadhu”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- ringgit
ringgit
24,636 corpus weight
- RiRi
RiRi
24,635 corpus weight
- RTÉ
RTÉ
24,630 corpus weight
- sadhu
sadhu
24,628 corpus weight
- Sahar
Sahar
24,625 corpus weight
- Salahuddin
Salahuddin
24,622 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sadhu” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sadhu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsɑːduː/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #75,373 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sadhu” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sadhu is uncommon English at frequency #75,373 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsɑːduː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An ascetic or practitioner of yoga (yogi) who has given up pursuit of the first three Hindu goals of life: kama (enjoyment), artha (practical objectives) and even dharma (duty).".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for sadhu, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Sanskrit साधु (sādhú, “good; good man, holy man”). The correct English form is sadhu, spelled S-A-D-H-U.
Definition
- 1An ascetic or practitioner of yoga (yogi) who has given up pursuit of the first three Hindu goals of life: kama (enjoyment), artha (practical objectives) and even dharma (duty).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sadhu appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Then again these figures take no account of the thousands of beggars who travel free in India. Many of these are religious "Sadhus", dressed often in nothing but a loin-cloth, or even less, and their bodies smeared with ashes. A large number of these men are nothing but impostors, but the Hindu railway staff usually are afraid to interfere with them.
It was clad in white in the manner of an Indian sadu or holy man, and it was walking barefoot on the grubby pavements.
Etymology
From Sanskrit साधु (sādhú, “good; good man, holy man”).
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sadhu", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "sadhu". Here's where to go from here.
- Usage frequency rank #75,373 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
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PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.