scabies
/ˈskeɪ.biz/
"scabies" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scabies” is an uncommon English word, ranked #57,697 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #57,697
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An infestation of parasitic mites, Sarcoptes scabiei, causing intense itching caused by the mites burrowing into the skin of humans and other animals. It is easily transmissible from human to human...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | scabies |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈskeɪ.biz/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #57,697 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “scabies” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for scabies is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈskeɪ.biz/. Corpus data places it at rank #57,697 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "An infestation of parasitic mites, Sarcoptes scabiei, causing intense itching caused by the mites burrowing into the skin of humans and other animals. It is easily transmissible from human to human...".
No generated misspelling entries exist for scabies in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English scabies, scabiez, from Latin scabiēs (“scurf; scab, mange, itch”), from scabō (“scratch, scrape”, verb). The correct English form is scabies, spelled S-C-A-B-I-E-S.
Definition
- 1An infestation of parasitic mites, Sarcoptes scabiei, causing intense itching caused by the mites burrowing into the skin of humans and other animals. It is easily transmissible from human to human; secondary skin infection may occur.
Etymology
From Middle English scabies, scabiez, from Latin scabiēs (“scurf; scab, mange, itch”), from scabō (“scratch, scrape”, verb).
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 “scabies”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-A-B-I-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈskeɪ.biz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.