barbacoa
/ˌbɑː(ɹ)bəˈkoʊ.ə/
"barbacoa" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barbacoa” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Meat slow-cooked over an open fire, characteristic of Latin American cuisine.
Corpus desk
Index EN-barbacoa · barbacoa · English
barbacoa · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | barbacoa |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌbɑː(ɹ)bəˈkoʊ.ə/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “barbacoa” in English
Rare enough to double-check
barbacoa is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌbɑː(ɹ)bəˈkoʊ.ə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Meat slow-cooked over an open fire, characteristic of Latin American cuisine.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for barbacoa, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Spanish barbacoa (whence also barbecue), from Taíno barbakoa (“framework of sticks”), the raised wooden structure the natives used to either sleep on or cure meat. Originally “meal of roasted meat or fish”. The correct English form is barbacoa, spelled B-A-R-B-A-C-O-A.
Definition
- 1Meat slow-cooked over an open fire, characteristic of Latin American cuisine.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how barbacoa appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
At first Andablo tried to make barbacoa with cow heads, but something about American beef didn't taste right. "
Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish barbacoa (whence also barbecue), from Taíno barbakoa (“framework of sticks”), the raised wooden structure the natives used to either sleep on or cure meat. Originally “meal of roasted meat or fish”.
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.