sore throat

noun

"sore-throat" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sore throat” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any inflammation of the pharynx that causes soreness.

Corpus desk

Index EN-sore-throat · sore throat · English

sore throat · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for sore throat
PropertyValue
Headwordsore throat
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “sore throat” in English

sore throatranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sore throat is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

sore throat has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is sore throat, spelled S-O-R-E- -T-H-R-O-A-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any inflammation of the pharynx that causes soreness.
  2. 2
    The same, as a common symptom for many viral and bacterial infections.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how sore throat appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Complains of a bad taste in his mouth ; there is some sore throat and difficulty of deglutition ; appetite very bad ; not very thirsty[…].
  2. Some sore throat is a common symptom also in erysipelas of the scalp.

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

How do you spell "sore throat"?
"sore throat" is spelled S-O-R-E- -T-H-R-O-A-T.
What does "sore throat" mean?
As a noun, "sore throat" means: Any inflammation of the pharynx that causes soreness.
What language does "sore throat" come from?
"sore throat" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list