badmouth
/ˈbæd.maʊθ/
"badmouth" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“badmouth” is uncommon English (frequency #88,089 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #88,089
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To criticize or malign, especially unfairly or spitefully.
Corpus desk
Index EN-badmouth · badmouth · English
badmouth · rank #88,089 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #88,089
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH backswing
Nearest frequency peer: backswing (-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 “badmouth”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- backswing
backswing
11,913 corpus weight
- badmouth
badmouth
11,912 corpus weight
- bagman
bagman
11,911 corpus weight
- bahu
bahu
11,909 corpus weight
- Bajan
Bajan
11,908 corpus weight
- Baptista
Baptista
11,907 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “badmouth” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | badmouth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈbæd.maʊθ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #88,089 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “badmouth” in English
Rare enough to double-check
badmouth is uncommon English at frequency #88,089 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈbæd.maʊθ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To criticize or malign, especially unfairly or spitefully.".
No misspelling variants are generated for badmouth in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of a Mande term, perhaps Vai [Term?] or Mandinka [Term?], which entered English via Gullah [Term?]. Compare Japanese 悪口(わるぐち) (waruguchi, “badmouthing”), which is a compound of 悪(わる) (waru, “bad, wicked”) and 口(くち) (kuchi, “mouth”). The correct English form is badmouth, spelled B-A-D-M-O-U-T-H.
Definition
- 1To criticize or malign, especially unfairly or spitefully.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how badmouth appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[…] those cross-Atlantic aficionados who persistently idolize the British theater and bad-mouth Broadway.
He also believed that Mr. Altman was bad-mouthing the board to OpenAI executives, two people with knowledge of the situation said.
Etymology
Calque of a Mande term, perhaps Vai [Term?] or Mandinka [Term?], which entered English via Gullah [Term?]. Compare Japanese 悪口(わるぐち) (waruguchi, “badmouthing”), which is a compound of 悪(わる) (waru, “bad, wicked”) and 口(くち) (kuchi, “mouth”).
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "badmouth", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).