strut
/stɹʌt/
"strut" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“strut” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,692 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #23,692
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of a peacock or other fowl: to stand or walk stiffly, with the tail erect and spread out.
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 | strut |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /stɹʌt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #23,692 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “strut” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for strut is 5 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /stɹʌt/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,692 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for strut, with forms such as "srtut", "sstrut", and "strrut". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Stu", "stud", "stun", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Middle English strouten, struten (“to bulge, swell; to protrude, stick out; to bluster, threaten; to object forcefully; to create a disturbance; to fight; to display one's clothes in a proud or vain manner”) [and other forms], from … The correct English form is strut, spelled S-T-R-U-T.
Definition
- 1Of a peacock or other fowl: to stand or walk stiffly, with the tail erect and spread out.
- 2To walk haughtily or proudly with one's head held high.
- 3To walk across or on (a stage or other place) haughtily or proudly.
- 4Often followed by out: to protuberate or stick out due to being full or swollen; to bulge, to swell.
- 5Often followed by out: to cause (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell.
Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English strouten, struten (“to bulge, swell; to protrude, stick out; to bluster, threaten; to object forcefully; to create a disturbance; to fight; to display one's clothes in a proud or vain manner”) [and other forms], from Old English strūtian (“to project out; stand out stiffly; to exert oneself, struggle”), from Proto-Germanic *strūtōną, *strūtijaną (“to be puffed up, swell”), from Proto-Indo-European *streudʰ- (“rigid, stiff”), from *(s)ter- (“firm; strong; rigid, stiff”). The English word is cognate with Danish strutte (“to bulge, bristle”), Low German strutt (“stiff”), Middle High German striuzen (“to bristle; to ruffle”) (modern German strotzen (“to bristle up”), sträußen (obsolete, except in Alemannic)); and compare Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌿𐍄𐍃𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌻 (þrutsfill, “leprosy”), Old Norse þrútinn (“swollen”). The noun is derived from the verb. Noun sense 2 (“instrument for adjusting the pleats of a ruff”) appears to be due to a misreading of a 16th-century work which used the word stroout (strouted (“caused (something) to bulge, protrude, or swell; strutted”)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: srtut,sstrut,strrut,strtu,strutt,sttrut,tsrut
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of strut - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "strut"?
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Using “strut”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-R-U-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /stɹʌt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Stu” - see the side-by-side comparison. strut vs Stu
- 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.