balsa
/ˈbɔːl.sə/
"balsa" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“balsa” is an uncommon English word, ranked #54,032 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #54,032
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A large tree, Ochroma pyramidale, native to tropical America, with wood that is very light in weight.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | balsa |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɔːl.sə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #54,032 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “balsa” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for balsa is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɔːl.sə/. Corpus data places it at rank #54,032 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for balsa, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Spanish balsa, from Paleo-Hispanic, probably Basque [Term?] or Iberian [Term?]. Not related to balsam. The correct English form is balsa, spelled B-A-L-S-A.
Definition
- 1A large tree, Ochroma pyramidale, native to tropical America, with wood that is very light in weight.
- 2The wood of this tree.
- 3A raft or float, used principally on the Pacific coast of South America.
Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish balsa, from Paleo-Hispanic, probably Basque [Term?] or Iberian [Term?]. Not related to balsam.
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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Using “balsa”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-A-L-S-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɔːl.sə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.