vetch
/vɛt͡ʃ/
"vetch" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“vetch” is uncommon English (frequency #77,322 among 7,391 “V” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,322
- frequency rank, English
- 7,391
- “V” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of several leguminous plants, of the genus Vicia, often grown as green manure and for their edible seeds.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | vetch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /vɛt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #77,322 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “vetch” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
vetch is uncommon English at frequency #77,322 among 7,391 “V” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /vɛt͡ʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
vetch doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English vecche, fecche, ficche, from Old Northern French veche, variant of Old French vece, from Latin vicia. Doublet of fitch. The correct English form is vetch, spelled V-E-T-C-H.
Definition
- 1Any of several leguminous plants, of the genus Vicia, often grown as green manure and for their edible seeds.
- 2Any of several similar plants within the subfamily Faboideae.
Etymology
From Middle English vecche, fecche, ficche, from Old Northern French veche, variant of Old French vece, from Latin vicia. Doublet of fitch.
Synonyms
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 “vetch”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is V-E-T-C-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /vɛt͡ʃ/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.