various
/ˈvɛəɹi.əs/
"various" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“various” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #799 in English word frequency and used as a determiner.
- #799
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - More than one (of an indeterminate set of things).
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 | various |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Determiner |
| IPA | /ˈvɛəɹi.əs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #799 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “various” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for various is 7 letters long, classified as a determiner, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈvɛəɹi.əs/. Corpus data places it at rank #799 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "More than one (of an indeterminate set of things).".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for various, with forms such as "avrious", "vairous", and "variosu". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "vicious", "variously", "vicarious", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French varieux, from Latin varius (“manifold, diverse, various, parti-colored, variegated, also changing, changeable, fickle, etc.”). By surface analysis, vary + -ous. The correct English form is various, spelled V-A-R-I-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1More than one (of an indeterminate set of things).
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French varieux, from Latin varius (“manifold, diverse, various, parti-colored, variegated, also changing, changeable, fickle, etc.”). By surface analysis, vary + -ous.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: avrious,vairous,variosu,variouss,variuos,varoius,varrious,vraious,vvarious
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of various - 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
How do you spell "various"?
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Using “various”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is V-A-R-I-O-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈvɛəɹi.əs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “vicious” - see the side-by-side comparison. various vs vicious
- 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.