barbarous
/ˈbɑː(ɹ)bəɹəs/
"barbarous" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barbarous” is uncommon English (frequency #50,371 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,371
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Not classical or pure.
Corpus desk
Index EN-barbarous · barbarous · English
barbarous · rank #50,371 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,371
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH ballsy
Nearest frequency peer: ballsy (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “barbarous”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- axiomatic
axiomatic
49,634 corpus weight
- backlit
backlit
49,633 corpus weight
- ballsy
ballsy
49,631 corpus weight
- barbarous
barbarous
49,630 corpus weight
- Baru
Baru
49,627 corpus weight
- bashful
bashful
49,626 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “barbarous” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | barbarous |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈbɑː(ɹ)bəɹəs/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #50,371 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “barbarous” in English
Rare enough to double-check
barbarous is uncommon English at frequency #50,371 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈbɑː(ɹ)bəɹəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for barbarous in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Late Middle English, from Latin barbarus (“foreigner, savage”), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, strange”). The correct English form is barbarous, spelled B-A-R-B-A-R-O-U-S.
Definition
- 1Not classical or pure.
- 2Uncivilized, uncultured.
- 3Mercilessly or impudently violent or cruel, savage.
- 4Like a barbarian, especially in sound; noisy, dissonant.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how barbarous appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He, that would write exactly, muſt avoid a Barbarous Pronunciation, and conſider for facility, or thorow miſtake, many words are not ſounded after the beſt dialect. Such as […] Wun, one.
The original Turkish tongue was somewhat barbarous, but extremely forcible and concise when spoken.
Etymology
Late Middle English, from Latin barbarus (“foreigner, savage”), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, strange”).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "barbarous", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).