baklava
/ˈbæk.lə.və/
"baklava" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“baklava” is uncommon English (frequency #61,982 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,982
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sweet pastry found in many cuisines of the Middle East and the Balkans, made of chopped nuts layered with phyllo pastry.
Corpus desk
Index EN-baklava · baklava · English
baklava · rank #61,982 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #61,982
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 31,241
- PHOTO-FINISH bacteriology
Nearest frequency peer: bacteriology (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “baklava”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Ayre
Ayre
38,023 corpus weight
- bacteriology
bacteriology
38,020 corpus weight
- baklava
baklava
38,019 corpus weight
- Bamber
Bamber
38,017 corpus weight
- Bankhead
Bankhead
38,016 corpus weight
- Bansal
Bansal
38,015 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “baklava” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | baklava |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbæk.lə.və/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #61,982 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “baklava” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
baklava is uncommon English at frequency #61,982 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbæk.lə.və/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A sweet pastry found in many cuisines of the Middle East and the Balkans, made of chopped nuts layered with phyllo pastry.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for baklava, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Turkish baklava, from Ottoman Turkish باقلوا (baklava) (see for more); possibly from Middle Mongol ᠪᠠᠭᠯᠠᠭᠠ (baɣlag-a, “bundle, package”). The correct English form is baklava, spelled B-A-K-L-A-V-A.
Definition
- 1A sweet pastry found in many cuisines of the Middle East and the Balkans, made of chopped nuts layered with phyllo pastry.
Etymology
Borrowed from Turkish baklava, from Ottoman Turkish باقلوا (baklava) (see for more); possibly from Middle Mongol ᠪᠠᠭᠯᠠᠭᠠ (baɣlag-a, “bundle, package”).
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "baklava", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.