wrath
/ɹɒθ/
"wrath" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wrath” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,328 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,328
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Great anger; (countable) an instance of this.
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 | wrath |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹɒθ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #11,328 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wrath” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wrath is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɒθ/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,328 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for wrath, with forms such as "rwath", "warth", and "wraht". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "WTH", "writ", "Wray", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English wraththe, wreththe (“anger, fury, rage; animosity, hostility; deadly sin of wrath; distress, vexation; punishment; retribution (?)”) [and other forms], from Old English wrǣþþu (“ire, wrath”) [and other forms], from Pr… The correct English form is wrath, spelled W-R-A-T-H.
Definition
- 1Great anger; (countable) an instance of this.
- 2Punishment, retribution, or vengeance resulting from anger; (countable) an instance of this.
- 3Great ardour or passion.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English wraththe, wreththe (“anger, fury, rage; animosity, hostility; deadly sin of wrath; distress, vexation; punishment; retribution (?)”) [and other forms], from Old English wrǣþþu (“ire, wrath”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *wraiþiþu (“anger, fury, wrath”), from *wraiþ (“angry, furious, wroth; hostile, violent; bent, twisted”) (from Proto-Germanic *wraiþaz (“angry, furious, wroth; hostile, violent; bent, twisted”), from Proto-Indo-European *wreyt- (“to twist”)) + *-iþu (suffix forming abstract nouns). Effectively analysable as wroth + -th (abstract nominal suffix). The verb is derived from Middle English wratthen (“to be or become angry, to rage; to quarrel; to cause wrath, offend; to become troubled or vexed; to cause grief or harm, grieve, vex”) [and other forms], from wraththe, wreththe (noun) (see above) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs). Cognates * Danish vrede (“anger, wrath”) * Dutch wreedte (“cruelty”) * Icelandic reiði (“anger”) * Swedish vrede (“anger, ire, wrath”)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: rwath,warth,wraht,wrathh,wratth,wrrath,wrtah,wwrath
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wrath - 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 “wrath”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-R-A-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɹɒθ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “WTH” - see the side-by-side comparison. wrath vs WTH
- 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.