Barbary Coast

name

"barbary-coast" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Barbary Coast” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The Mediterranean region off the coast of North Africa, once notorious as a haven for pirates

Corpus desk

Index EN-barbary-coast · Barbary Coast · English

Barbary Coast · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-5 5 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.

Key facts for Barbary Coast
PropertyValue
HeadwordBarbary Coast
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Barbary Coast” in English

Barbary Coastranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Barbary Coast is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for Barbary Coast in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is Barbary Coast, spelled B-A-R-B-A-R-Y- -C-O-A-S-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    The Mediterranean region off the coast of North Africa, once notorious as a haven for pirates
  2. 2
    A waterfront area of San Francisco at the time of the gold rush.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how Barbary Coast appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The tango, the Texas Tommy, Walking the Dog, the one step, the fox trot, the shimmy, and all their out-growths, had their origin in the palaces of lust on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Barbary Coast"?
"Barbary Coast" is spelled B-A-R-B-A-R-Y- -C-O-A-S-T.
What does "Barbary Coast" mean?
As a proper noun, "Barbary Coast" means: The Mediterranean region off the coast of North Africa, once notorious as a haven for pirates
What language does "Barbary Coast" come from?
"Barbary Coast" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list