afterburner

noun

"afterburner" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“afterburner” is uncommon English (frequency #72,068 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#72,068
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A device in a jet engine which injects fuel into the exhaust system to increase the thrust.

Corpus desk

Index EN-afterburner · afterburner · English

afterburner · rank #72,068 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #72,068
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH afterparty

Nearest frequency peer: afterparty (+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 “afterburner”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “afterburner” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for afterburner
PropertyValue
Headwordafterburner
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Frequency rank#72,068
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “afterburner” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).afterburnerfalls in this rarity band:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “afterparty” (#72,069), “Africana” (#72,066), “afters” (#72,070). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “afterburner” is #72,068. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

afterburner is uncommon English at frequency #72,068 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A device in a jet engine which injects fuel into the exhaust system to increase the thrust.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for afterburner, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From after- + burner. The correct English form is afterburner, spelled A-F-T-E-R-B-U-R-N-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    A device in a jet engine which injects fuel into the exhaust system to increase the thrust.

Etymology

From after- + burner.

Synonyms

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

How do you spell "afterburner"?
"afterburner" is spelled A-F-T-E-R-B-U-R-N-E-R.
What does "afterburner" mean?
As a noun, "afterburner" means: A device in a jet engine which injects fuel into the exhaust system to increase the thrust.
What is the origin of the word "afterburner"?
From after- + burner. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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 English words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list