barbed wire
/bɑɹbd waɪəɹ/
"barbed-wire" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barbed wire” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Twisted strands of steel wire, often coated with zinc, having barbs evenly spaced along them; used to construct agricultural and military fences.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | barbed wire |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɑɹbd waɪəɹ/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “barbed wire” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for barbed wire is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɑɹbd waɪəɹ/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Twisted strands of steel wire, often coated with zinc, having barbs evenly spaced along them; used to construct agricultural and military fences.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for barbed wire, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is barbed wire, spelled B-A-R-B-E-D- -W-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1Twisted strands of steel wire, often coated with zinc, having barbs evenly spaced along them; used to construct agricultural and military fences.
This word in other languages
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
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Using “barbed wire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-A-R-B-E-D- -W-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɑɹbd waɪəɹ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.