bailiwick
/ˈbeɪ.lɪ.wɪk/
"bailiwick" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bailiwick” is uncommon English (frequency #79,285 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,285
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The district within which a bailie or bailiff has jurisdiction.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bailiwick · bailiwick · English
bailiwick · rank #79,285 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #79,285
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH bailee
Nearest frequency peer: bailee (-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 “bailiwick”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- bailee
bailee
20,717 corpus weight
- bailiwick
bailiwick
20,716 corpus weight
- baleful
baleful
20,715 corpus weight
- ballas
ballas
20,714 corpus weight
- barque
barque
20,713 corpus weight
- Beaune
Beaune
20,710 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bailiwick” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bailiwick |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbeɪ.lɪ.wɪk/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #79,285 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bailiwick” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bailiwick is uncommon English at frequency #79,285 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbeɪ.lɪ.wɪk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for bailiwick in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From bailie (“bailiff”) and wick (“dwelling”), from Old English wīc. The correct English form is bailiwick, spelled B-A-I-L-I-W-I-C-K.
Definition
- 1The district within which a bailie or bailiff has jurisdiction.
- 2A person's concern or sphere of operations, their area of skill or authority.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bailiwick appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The Bailiwick of Jersey.
I established the fairly well-understood pattern that affairs of state were not in my bailiwick.
Etymology
From bailie (“bailiff”) and wick (“dwelling”), from Old English wīc.
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 "bailiwick", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).