barbarian
/bɑː(ɹ)ˈbɛə.ɹi.ən/
"barbarian" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barbarian” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #20,043 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #20,043
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Relating to people, countries, or customs perceived as uncivilized or inferior.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | barbarian |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /bɑː(ɹ)ˈbɛə.ɹi.ən/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #20,043 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “barbarian” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for barbarian is 9 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɑː(ɹ)ˈbɛə.ɹi.ən/. Corpus data places it at rank #20,043 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Relating to people, countries, or customs perceived as uncivilized or inferior.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for barbarian, with forms such as "abrbarian", "babrarian", and "barabrian". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "barbaric", "bavarian", "barbarism", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English barbarian, borrowed from Medieval Latin barbarinus (“Berber, pagan, foreigner”), from Latin barbaria (“foreign country”), from barbarus (“foreigner, savage”), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, non-Greek, strange”), possibl… The correct English form is barbarian, spelled B-A-R-B-A-R-I-A-N.
Definition
- 1Relating to people, countries, or customs perceived as uncivilized or inferior.
Etymology
From Middle English barbarian, borrowed from Medieval Latin barbarinus (“Berber, pagan, foreigner”), from Latin barbaria (“foreign country”), from barbarus (“foreigner, savage”), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, non-Greek, strange”), possibly onomatopoeic (mimicking foreign languages, akin to English blah blah). Cognate to Sanskrit बर्बर (barbara, “barbarian, non-Aryan, stammering, blockhead”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abrbarian,babrarian,barabrian,barbairan,barbarain,barbariann,barbarina,barbarrian,barbbarian,barbraian,barrbarian,bbarbarian,brabarian
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of barbarian - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "barbarian"?
What does "barbarian" mean?
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Using “barbarian”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-A-R-B-A-R-I-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɑː(ɹ)ˈbɛə.ɹi.ən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “barbaric” - see the side-by-side comparison. barbarian vs barbaric
- 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.