urbane
/ɜːˈbeɪn/
"urbane" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“urbane” is an uncommon English word, ranked #55,840 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #55,840
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of a person (usually a man): having refined manners; courteous, polite, suave.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | urbane |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ɜːˈbeɪn/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #55,840 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “urbane” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for urbane is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɜːˈbeɪn/. Corpus data places it at rank #55,840 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for urbane in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: A variant of urban + -ane (a variant of -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives)). Urban is borrowed from Middle French urbain (“belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane”) (modern French urbain), or from its etymon Latin u… The correct English form is urbane, spelled U-R-B-A-N-E.
Definition
- 1Of a person (usually a man): having refined manners; courteous, polite, suave.
- 2Of an act, expression, etc.: suited to a person of refined manners; elegant, sophisticated.
- 3Obsolete spelling of urban (“of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a city or town, or life in such a place; living in a city or town; having authority or jurisdiction over a city or town”).
Etymology
A variant of urban + -ane (a variant of -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives)). Urban is borrowed from Middle French urbain (“belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane”) (modern French urbain), or from its etymon Latin urbānus (“of or belonging to a city, urban; of manners or style: like those of city dwellers: cultivated, polished, refined, sophisticated”), from urbs (“city; walled town; Rome”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to encircle, enclose; a belt; an enclosure, fence”) or *werbʰ- (“to enclose”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).
This word in other languages
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 “urbane”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is U-R-B-A-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɜːˈbeɪn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.