summarise
"summarise" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“summarise” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #47,359 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #47,359
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Alternative form of summarize.
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 | summarise |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #47,359 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “summarise” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for summarise is 9 letters long, classified as a verb. Corpus data places it at rank #47,359 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Alternative form of summarize.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for summarise, with forms such as "smumarise", "ssummarise", and "sumamrise". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "summarize", "submarine", "summarily", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From summ(ary) + -arise. The correct English form is summarise, spelled S-U-M-M-A-R-I-S-E.
Definition
- 1Alternative form of summarize.
Etymology
From summ(ary) + -arise.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: smumarise,ssummarise,sumamrise,sumarise,summairse,summaries,summarisse,summarrise,summarsie,summraise,usmmarise
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of summarise - 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
How do you spell "summarise"?
What does "summarise" mean?
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Using “summarise”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-M-M-A-R-I-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “summarize” - see the side-by-side comparison. summarise vs summarize
- 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.