virago
/vɪˈɹɑːɡəʊ/
"virago" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“virago” is uncommon English (frequency #81,011 among 969 “V” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #81,011
- frequency rank, English
- 969
- “V” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A woman given to undue belligerence or ill manner at the slightest provocation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-virago · virago · English
virago · rank #81,011 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #81,011
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 969
- PHOTO-FINISH viewport
Nearest frequency peer: viewport (-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 “virago”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- upmost
upmost
19,000 corpus weight
- velveeta
velveeta
18,994 corpus weight
- Venkat
Venkat
18,993 corpus weight
- venta
venta
18,992 corpus weight
- viewport
viewport
18,991 corpus weight
- virago
virago
18,990 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “virago” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | virago |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /vɪˈɹɑːɡəʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #81,011 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “virago” in English
Rare enough to double-check
virago is uncommon English at frequency #81,011 among 969 “V” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /vɪˈɹɑːɡəʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for virago in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin virāgō (“warlike or heroic woman”, literally “manlike”). The correct English form is virago, spelled V-I-R-A-G-O.
Definition
- 1A woman given to undue belligerence or ill manner at the slightest provocation.
- 2A woman who is scolding, domineering, or highly opinionated.
- 3A woman who is rough, loud, and aggressive.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how virago appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.
Joan was all Arden, grinning there, siding with her virago mother.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin virāgō (“warlike or heroic woman”, literally “manlike”).
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 "virago", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).