scourge
/skɜːd͡ʒ/
"scourge" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scourge” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #22,807 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #22,807
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash.
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 | scourge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /skɜːd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #22,807 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “scourge” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for scourge is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /skɜːd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #22,807 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for scourge, with forms such as "csourge", "sccourge", and "scoruge". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "surge", "source", "splurge", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”), and then either: * from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, escurge, or Old French scurge, escourge, escorge, escorgiee, escurg… The correct English form is scourge, spelled S-C-O-U-R-G-E.
Definition
- 1A whip, often made of leather and having multiple tails; a lash.
- 2A person or thing regarded as an agent of divine punishment.
- 3A source of persistent (and often widespread) pain and suffering or trouble, such as a cruel ruler, disease, pestilence, or war.
Etymology
From Middle English scourge (“a lash, whip, scourge; affliction, calamity; person who causes affliction or calamity; shoot of a vine”), and then either: * from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge, escurge, or Old French scurge, escourge, escorge, escorgiee, escurge (modern French escourgée (“(archaic) whip made of leather strips”)), either: ** from Vulgar Latin *excoriāta (“strip of hide; a scourge”), from Late Latin excoriāre, the present active infinitive of excoriō (“to strip the skin from, to skin”), from Latin ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + corium (“skin; hide, leather”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off, sever; to divide, separate”)); or ** from Latin ex- (intensifying prefix) + corrigia (“a whip”) (from corrigō (“to make right, correct; to reform”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to righten; to straighten”)); or * from Middle English scourgen (verb) (see etymology 2). Cognates Italian scuriada, scuriata
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: csourge,sccourge,scoruge,scougre,scoureg,scourgge,scourrge,scuorge,socurge,sscourge
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of scourge - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "scourge"?
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Using “scourge”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-O-U-R-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /skɜːd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “surge” - see the side-by-side comparison. scourge vs surge
- 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.