terrified
/ˈtɛɹɪfaɪd/
"terrified" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“terrified” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,859 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #7,859
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Extremely frightened.
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 | terrified |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈtɛɹɪfaɪd/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #7,859 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “terrified” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for terrified is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtɛɹɪfaɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,859 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Extremely frightened.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for terrified, with forms such as "etrrified", "terified", and "terirfied". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "terrific", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is terrified, spelled T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D.
Definition
- 1Extremely frightened.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: etrrified,terified,terirfied,terrfiied,terrifeid,terriffied,terrifide,terrifiedd,terriifed,trerified,tterrified
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of terrified - 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
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Using “terrified”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtɛɹɪfaɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “terrific” - see the side-by-side comparison. terrified vs terrific
- 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.