sprue

/spɹuː/

//spɹuː// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"sprue" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sprue” is uncommon English (frequency #89,936 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#89,936
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tropical disease causing a sore throat and tongue, and disturbed digestion; psilosis.

Corpus desk

Index EN-sprue · sprue · English

sprue · rank #89,936 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #89,936
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH stabling

Nearest frequency peer: stabling (+2 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.

Long-tail ranks near “sprue”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “sprue” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for sprue
PropertyValue
Headwordsprue
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/spɹuː/
Letters5
Frequency rank#89,936
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “sprue” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).spruefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “stabling” (#89,938), “stakeout” (#89,940), “speculatively” (#89,931). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “sprue” is #89,936. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sprue is uncommon English at frequency #89,936 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /spɹuː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A tropical disease causing a sore throat and tongue, and disturbed digestion; psilosis.".

sprue has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Dutch spruw, sprouw. First described by William Hillary. The correct English form is sprue, spelled S-P-R-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A tropical disease causing a sore throat and tongue, and disturbed digestion; psilosis.

Etymology

From Dutch spruw, sprouw. First described by William Hillary.

Synonyms

tropical sprue

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 "sprue"?
"sprue" is spelled S-P-R-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is /spɹuː/.
What does "sprue" mean?
As a noun, "sprue" means: A tropical disease causing a sore throat and tongue, and disturbed digestion; psilosis.
How do you pronounce "sprue"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sprue" is /spɹuː/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "sprue"?
From Dutch spruw, sprouw. First described by William Hillary. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sprue", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sixer#89,909talky#89,973Sette#89,893Serna#89,890

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list