trust
/tɹʌst/
"trust" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“trust” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #780 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #780
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Confidence in or reliance on some person or quality.
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 | trust |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tɹʌst/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #780 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “trust” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for trust is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɹʌst/. Corpus data places it at rank #780 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for trust, with forms such as "rtust", "trrust", and "trsut". 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, "tut", "tusk", "tuft", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English trust, trost (“trust, protection”). Long considered a borrowing from Old Norse traust (“confidence, help, protection”), from Proto-Germanic *traustą, but the root vocalism is incompatible, so trust has come to be considered a reflex of a… The correct English form is trust, spelled T-R-U-S-T.
Definition
- 1Confidence in or reliance on some person or quality.
- 2Dependence upon something in the future; hope.
- 3Confidence in the future payment for goods or services supplied; credit.
- 4That which is committed or entrusted; something received in confidence; a charge.
- 5That upon which confidence is reposed; ground of reliance; hope.
- 6Trustworthiness, reliability.
- 7The condition or obligation of one to whom anything is confided; responsible charge or office.
- 8The confidence vested in a person who has legal ownership of a property to manage for the benefit of another.
- 9An arrangement whereby property or money is given to be held by a third party (a trustee), on the basis that it will be managed for the benefit of, or eventually transferred to, a stated beneficiary; for example, money to be given to a child when he or she reaches adulthood.
- 10A group of businessmen or traders organised for mutual benefit to produce and distribute specific commodities or services, and managed by a central body of trustees.
- 11Affirmation of the access rights of a user of a computer system.
Etymology
From Middle English trust, trost (“trust, protection”). Long considered a borrowing from Old Norse traust (“confidence, help, protection”), from Proto-Germanic *traustą, but the root vocalism is incompatible, so trust has come to be considered a reflex of an unattested Old English *trust, from a rare zero-grade Proto-Germanic variant of the same root also attested in Middle High German getrüste (“host”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“be firm, hard, solid”). Akin to Danish trøst (“comfort, solace”), Saterland Frisian Traast (“comfort, solace”), West Frisian treast (“comfort, solace”), Dutch troost (“comfort, consolation”), German Trost (“comfort, consolation”), Gothic trausti (“alliance, pact”). Doublet of tryst. More at true, tree.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: rtust,trrust,trsut,trusst,trustt,truts,ttrust,turst
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of trust - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “trust”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-R-U-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tɹʌst/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “tut” - see the side-by-side comparison. trust vs tut
- 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.