secure
/sɪˈkjʊə(ɹ)/
"secure" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“secure” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,315 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #2,315
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 13
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Free from attack or danger; protected.
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 | secure |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /sɪˈkjʊə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #2,315 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 13 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “secure” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for secure is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɪˈkjʊə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,315 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for secure, with forms such as "escure", "sceure", and "seccure". 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 13 confusable-pair relationships, "sure", "segue", "severe", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin sēcūrus (“of persons, free from care, quiet, easy; in a bad sense, careless, reckless; of things, tranquil, also free from danger, safe, secure”), from sē- (“without”) + cūra (“care”); see cure. Doublet of sure and the now obsolete or di… The correct English form is secure, spelled S-E-C-U-R-E.
Definition
- 1Free from attack or danger; protected.
- 2Free from the danger of theft; safe.
- 3Free from the risk of eavesdropping, interception or discovery; secret.
- 4Free from anxiety or doubt; unafraid.
- 5Firm and not likely to fail; stable.
- 6Free from the risk of financial loss; reliable.
- 7Confident in opinion; not entertaining, or not having reason to entertain, doubt; certain; sure; commonly used with of.
- 8Overconfident; incautious; careless.
- 9Certain to be achieved or gained; assured.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin sēcūrus (“of persons, free from care, quiet, easy; in a bad sense, careless, reckless; of things, tranquil, also free from danger, safe, secure”), from sē- (“without”) + cūra (“care”); see cure. Doublet of sure and the now obsolete or dialectal sicker (“certain, safe”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: escure,sceure,seccure,secrue,secuer,securre,seucre,ssecure
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of secure - 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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Using “secure”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-C-U-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɪˈkjʊə(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sure” - see the side-by-side comparison. secure vs sure
- 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.