Rufus
The verdict
“Rufus” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #27,608 in French word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #27,608
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Prénom masculin.
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 | Rufus |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #27,608 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Rufus” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for Rufus is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun. Corpus data places it at rank #27,608 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Prénom masculin.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for Rufus, with forms such as "rfuus", "rrufus", and "ruffus". 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 15 confusable-pair relationships, "rus", "russ", "rules", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is Rufus, spelled R-U-F-U-S.
Definition
- 1Prénom masculin.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: rfuus,rrufus,ruffus,rufsu,rufuss,ruufs,urfus
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Rufus - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Rufus”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is R-U-F-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “rus” - see the side-by-side comparison. Rufus vs rus
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.