vestal
/ˈvɛs.t(ə)l/
"vestal" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“vestal” is uncommon English (frequency #55,179 among 969 “V” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,179
- frequency rank, English
- 969
- “V” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of or pertaining to Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth.
Corpus desk
Index EN-vestal · vestal · English
vestal · rank #55,179 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #55,179
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 969
- PHOTO-FINISH vedder
Nearest frequency peer: vedder (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “vestal”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- varietal
varietal
44,826 corpus weight
- vedder
vedder
44,823 corpus weight
- vestal
vestal
44,822 corpus weight
- vestigial
vestigial
44,821 corpus weight
- virginal
virginal
44,820 corpus weight
- visitations
visitations
44,819 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “vestal” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | vestal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈvɛs.t(ə)l/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #55,179 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “vestal” in English
Rare enough to double-check
vestal is uncommon English at frequency #55,179 among 969 “V” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈvɛs.t(ə)l/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
vestal doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Latin Vestālis. The correct English form is vestal, spelled V-E-S-T-A-L.
Definition
- 1Of or pertaining to Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth.
- 2Pure; chaste.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how vestal appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Does money fail?—come to my mint—coin paper, Till gold be at a discount, and ashamed To show his bilious face, go purge himself, In emulation of her vestal whiteness.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin Vestālis.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "vestal", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).