rugby

\ʁyɡ.bi\

/\ʁyɡ.bi\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“rugby” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,890. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,890
frequency rank, French
5,742
“R” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sport collectif se jouant avec un ballon ovale entre deux équipes sur un terrain de pelouse. Le but étant de faire progresser le ballon jusqu’à l’aplatir dans l’enbut adverse.

Corpus desk

Index FR-rugby · rugby · French

rugby · rank #4,890 · 8 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,890
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,742
  • PHOTO-FINISH romantique

Nearest frequency peer: romantique (-1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « rugby »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « rugby » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

rugby vs Rumba
40% similar
rugby vs RGB
0% similar
rugby vs ruby
80% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for rugby
PropertyValue
Headwordrugby
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʁyɡ.bi\
Letters5
Frequency rank#4,890
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « rugby »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).rugbyse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « romantique » (#4,889), « senti » (#4,891), « romaine » (#4,888). Parmi 5,742 lemmes en « R », « rugby » est au #4,890. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around rugby (IPA \ʁyɡ.bi\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,890 among 5,742 “R” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Sport collectif se jouant avec un ballon ovale entre deux équipes sur un terrain de pelouse. Le but étant de faire progresser le ballon jusqu’à l’aplatir dans l’enbut adverse.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for rugby, with forms such as "rguby", "rrugby", and "rubgy". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Rumba", "RGB", "ruby", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is rugby, spelled R-U-G-B-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sport collectif se jouant avec un ballon ovale entre deux équipes sur un terrain de pelouse. Le but étant de faire progresser le ballon jusqu’à l’aplatir dans l’enbut adverse.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how rugby appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Les règles de Rugby et de l'Association différent : nᵒ 1 par le nombre et la place des joueurs; nᵒ 2 par la forme du ballon; nᵒ 3 par la disposition des buts ; nᵒ 4 en ce que l'Association ne permet que l'usage des pieds, tandis que le Rugby autorise à la fois, dans certaines conditions, celui des pieds et des mains
  2. Car tout Anglais pratique un sport, son sport, qu’il s’agisse de rowing, de rugby ou du golf plus paisible.

Synonyms

ballon ovaleovalie

This word in other languages

rugby(English)rugby(Español)Rugby(Deutsch)râguebi(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • rguby
  • rrugby
  • rubgy
  • rugbby
  • rugbyy
  • ruggby
  • rugyb
  • urgby

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of rugby - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

rguby2rrugby1rubgy2rugbby1rugbyy1ruggby1rugyb2urgby2
Edit distance from "rugby"

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

How do you spell "rugby"?
"rugby" is spelled R-U-G-B-Y. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁyɡ.bi\.
What does "rugby" mean?
As a noun, "rugby" means: Sport collectif se jouant avec un ballon ovale entre deux équipes sur un terrain de pelouse. Le but étant de faire progresser le ballon jusqu’à l’aplatir dans l’enbut adverse.
What words are commonly confused with "rugby"?
"rugby" is commonly confused with "Rumba", "RGB", "ruby". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "rugby"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rugby" is \ʁyɡ.bi\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "rugby" come from?
"rugby" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "rugby", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

senti#4,891soupe#4,893Tokyo#4,898Obama#4,879

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

vagues8 variantsaperçu8 variantsbarrage8 variantsCamille8 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list