ballast
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "ballast", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "ballast" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "ballast" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
ballast is aEnglishnoun. It means: Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability. Pronounced /ˈbæl.əst/. Often confused with balls and blast.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ballast |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbæl.əst/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #23,471 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ballast is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbæl.əst/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,471 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for ballast, with forms such as "abllast", "balalst", and "balast". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "balls", "blast", "ballot", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bar (“bare”) + last (“load”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is ballast, spelled B-A-L-L-A-S-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.
- 2Anything that steadies emotion or the mind.
- 3Coarse gravel or similar material laid to form a bed for roads or railroads, or in making concrete; track ballast.
- 4A material, such as aggregate or precast concrete pavers, which employs its mass and the force of gravity to hold single-ply roof membranes in place.
- 5A material, such as aggregate or precast concrete pavers, which employs its mass and the force of gravity to hold single-ply roof membranes in place.
- 6device used for stabilizing current in an electric circuit (e.g. in a tube lamp supply circuit)
- 7That which gives, or helps to maintain, uprightness, steadiness, and security.
Etymology
From Middle English bar (“bare”) + last (“load”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abllast,balalst,balast,ballasst,ballastt,ballats,ballsat,bballast,blalast
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for ballast
Misspelling Variants of "ballast"
Frequency rank: #23,471 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: