ball lightning
"ball-lightning" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ball lightning” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A short-lived glowing ball sometimes observed to float in the air and thought to consist of ionized gas associated with thunderstorms.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ball-lightning · ball lightning · English
ball lightning · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ball lightning |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “ball lightning” in English
Rare enough to double-check
ball lightning is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A short-lived glowing ball sometimes observed to float in the air and thought to consist of ionized gas associated with thunderstorms.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for ball lightning, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: A calque of German Kugelblitz. The correct English form is ball lightning, spelled B-A-L-L- -L-I-G-H-T-N-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1A short-lived glowing ball sometimes observed to float in the air and thought to consist of ionized gas associated with thunderstorms.
Etymology
A calque of German Kugelblitz.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.