USSR
/ˌjuː.ɛs.ɛsˈɑː/
"ussr" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“USSR” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,686 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #9,686
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A former transcontinental country in Europe and Asia (1922–1991), now split into Russia and 14 other countries; the Soviet Union; in full, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
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 | USSR |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˌjuː.ɛs.ɛsˈɑː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #9,686 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “USSR” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for USSR is 4 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌjuː.ɛs.ɛsˈɑː/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,686 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for USSR, with forms such as "susr", "usr", and "usrs". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "UST", "usurp", "us", and more, 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, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is USSR, spelled U-S-S-R.
Definition
- 1A former transcontinental country in Europe and Asia (1922–1991), now split into Russia and 14 other countries; the Soviet Union; in full, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
- 2Initialism of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: susr,usr,usrs,ussrr
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of USSR - 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
How do you spell "USSR"?
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Using “USSR”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is U-S-S-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌjuː.ɛs.ɛsˈɑː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “UST” - see the side-by-side comparison. USSR vs UST
- 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.