wraith
/ɹeɪθ/
"wraith" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wraith” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #28,091 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #28,091
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A ghost or specter, especially a person's likeness seen just after their death.
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 | wraith |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹeɪθ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #28,091 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wraith” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wraith is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹeɪθ/. Corpus data places it at rank #28,091 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A ghost or specter, especially a person's likeness seen just after their death.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for wraith, with forms such as "rwaith", "warith", and "wraiht". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "writ", "write", "wrath", 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 Scots wraith, first attested in 1513 in a translation of the Aeneid. The word has no certain etymology; it may be a transferred use of Middle Scots wraith, wrath (nominally "anger, rage", adjectivally "angry, wrathful"), thus connecting… The correct English form is wraith, spelled W-R-A-I-T-H.
Definition
- 1A ghost or specter, especially a person's likeness seen just after their death.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle Scots wraith, first attested in 1513 in a translation of the Aeneid. The word has no certain etymology; it may be a transferred use of Middle Scots wraith, wrath (nominally "anger, rage", adjectivally "angry, wrathful"), thus connecting it to writhe and making it a doublet of wrath and wroth. Century Dictionary compares Old Norse vǫrðr (“guardian”); Klein compares Irish arrachd (“apparition”), which is related to riochd (“shape, likeness”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: rwaith,warith,wraiht,wraithh,wraitth,wratih,wriath,wrraith,wwraith
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wraith - 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
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Using “wraith”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-R-A-I-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹeɪθ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “writ” - see the side-by-side comparison. wraith vs writ
- 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.