scarlet fever
"scarlet-fever" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scarlet fever” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A streptococcal infection, mainly occurring among children, and characterized by a red skin rash, sore throat and fever.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | scarlet fever |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “scarlet fever” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
scarlet fever is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
scarlet fever has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: (attraction to soldiers): In allusion to the red coats they used to wear. The correct English form is scarlet fever, spelled S-C-A-R-L-E-T- -F-E-V-E-R.
Definition
- 1A streptococcal infection, mainly occurring among children, and characterized by a red skin rash, sore throat and fever.
- 2Romantic attraction to soldiers in preference to other people.
Etymology
(attraction to soldiers): In allusion to the red coats they used to wear.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “scarlet fever”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-A-R-L-E-T- -F-E-V-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.