torture
/ˈtoɹt͡ʃɚ/
"torture" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“torture” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,639 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,639
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The infliction of severe pain or anguish, especially as an interrogation technique or punishment; (usually in the plural) a technique, method, or device which is designed to inflict such anguish.
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 | torture |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtoɹt͡ʃɚ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #5,639 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “torture” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for torture is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtoɹt͡ʃɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,639 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for torture, with forms such as "otrture", "torrture", and "tortrue". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "Toure", "tortured", "torque", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English torture, from Old French torture, from Late Latin tortūra (“a twisting, writhing, of bodily pain, a griping colic;” in Medieval Latin “pain inflicted by judicial or ecclesiastical authority as a means of persuasion, torture”), from Latin… The correct English form is torture, spelled T-O-R-T-U-R-E.
Definition
- 1The infliction of severe pain or anguish, especially as an interrogation technique or punishment; (usually in the plural) a technique, method, or device which is designed to inflict such anguish.
- 2The infliction of severe pain or anguish, especially as an interrogation technique or punishment; (usually in the plural) a technique, method, or device which is designed to inflict such anguish.
- 3Severe pain or anguish, of mind or body.
- 4An unpleasant sensation or its infliction: embarrassment, heartache, etc.
Etymology
From Middle English torture, from Old French torture, from Late Latin tortūra (“a twisting, writhing, of bodily pain, a griping colic;” in Medieval Latin “pain inflicted by judicial or ecclesiastical authority as a means of persuasion, torture”), from Latin tortus (whence also tort), past participle of torquēre (“to twist”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: otrture,torrture,tortrue,tortture,tortuer,torturre,torutre,totrure,troture,ttorture
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of torture - 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 “torture”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-O-R-T-U-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtoɹt͡ʃɚ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Toure” - see the side-by-side comparison. torture vs Toure
- 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.