barbed
/bɑː(ɹ)bd/
"barbed" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barbed” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #20,294. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #20,294
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having barbs.
Corpus desk
Index EN-barbed · barbed · English
barbed · rank #20,294 · 9 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #20,294
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH barbaric
Nearest frequency peer: barbaric (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “barbed”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- audacity
audacity
79,710 corpus weight
- banjo
banjo
79,709 corpus weight
- barbaric
barbaric
79,708 corpus weight
- barbed
barbed
79,707 corpus weight
- battled
battled
79,706 corpus weight
- beech
beech
79,705 corpus weight
What this shows “barbed” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | barbed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /bɑː(ɹ)bd/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #20,294 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “barbed”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around barbed (IPA /bɑː(ɹ)bd/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #20,294 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for barbed, with forms such as "abrbed", "babred", and "barbbed". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bare", "bred", "bard", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is barbed, spelled B-A-R-B-E-D.
Definition
- 1Having barbs.
- 2Having barbs of a certain colour (as or similar to an arrow); beared.
- 3Having gills or wattles (as a bird); wattled.
- 4Having sepals or leaves between the petals (on a rose, etc).
- 5Deliberately hurtful; biting; caustic.
- 6Accoutered with defensive armor; barded.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how barbed appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
COCKATRICE an imaginary monster resembling a wivern with the head of a cock, the tongue barbed. It occurs displayed, but is ordinarily borne with the wings endorsed.
Crest : A demi-cockatrice or, crested gules, stricken through the back of the neck with an arrow sable, barbed and flighted argent. Sable, two bars humettée or between a cock in fesse and a swan in chief and in base argent.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- abrbed
- babred
- barbbed
- barbde
- barbedd
- barebd
- barrbed
- bbarbed
- brabed
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of barbed - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "barbed", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).