scarce
/ˈskɛəs/
"scarce" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scarce” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #12,856. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #12,856
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
Corpus desk
Index EN-scarce · scarce · English
scarce · rank #12,856 · 9 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #12,856
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH rusty
Nearest frequency peer: rusty (-1 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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “scarce”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- rotary
rotary
87,148 corpus weight
- Rupert
Rupert
87,147 corpus weight
- rusty
rusty
87,146 corpus weight
- scarce
scarce
87,145 corpus weight
- sibling
sibling
87,144 corpus weight
- simulator
simulator
87,143 corpus weight
What this shows “scarce” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | scarce |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈskɛəs/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #12,856 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “scarce”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around scarce (IPA /ˈskɛəs/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #12,856 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for scarce, with forms such as "csarce", "sacrce", and "scacre". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "space", "share", "score", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English scars, scarse, from Old Northern French scars, escars ("sparing, niggard, parsimonious, miserly, poor"; > French échars, Medieval Latin scarsus (“diminished, reduced”)), of uncertain origin. One theory is that it derives originally from … The correct English form is scarce, spelled S-C-A-R-C-E.
Definition
- 1Uncommon, rare; difficult to find; insufficient to meet a demand.
- 2Scantily supplied (with); deficient (in); used with of.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how scarce appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
By the end of the 20th century elephants had become scarce even in Africa.
You tell him silver is scarcer now in England, and therefore risen in value one fifth.
Etymology
From Middle English scars, scarse, from Old Northern French scars, escars ("sparing, niggard, parsimonious, miserly, poor"; > French échars, Medieval Latin scarsus (“diminished, reduced”)), of uncertain origin. One theory is that it derives originally from a Late Latin *scarpsus, *excarpsus, a participle form of *excarpere (“take out”), from Latin ex- + carpere; yet the sense evolution is difficult to trace. Compare Middle Dutch schaers (“scarce”), Middle Dutch schaers (“a pair of shears, plowshare”), scheeren (“to shear”). The standard pronunciation having the /ɛə(ɹ)/ vowel instead of expected /ɑː(ɹ)/ is due to a tendency for Old and Middle French preconsonantal /ar/ to be borrowed as Middle English /aːr/ that only survives in this word and dace in the modern standard, but is more frequent in Early Modern English and traditional dialects; compare Scots gairden (“garden”), lairge (“large”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- csarce
- sacrce
- scacre
- scarcce
- scarec
- scarrce
- sccarce
- scrace
- sscarce
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of scarce - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "scarce", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).