barbican
/ˈbɑɹbɪkən/noun
barbican is spelled B-A-R-B-I-C-A-N: 8 letters. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,209th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, barbican means “A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of barbican is barbicans.
How many letters and syllables are in barbican?
| Letters | 8: B-A-R-B-I-C-A-N |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 44,209th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is barbican?
Barbican appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,209th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce barbican?
- UK /ˈbɑːbɪkən/
- US /ˈbɑɹbɪkən/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-barbican.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of barbican
- barbicans plural
- barbacan
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does barbican mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town.
Near-synonym: guardhouse
- 2
A fortress at the end of a bridge.
- 3
An opening in the wall of a fortress through which the guns are levelled; a narrow loophole through which arrows and other missiles may be shot.
- 4
A temporary wooden tower built for defensive purposes.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Barbican in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense A tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does barbican come from?
From Old French barbacane, of uncertain origin: compare Arabic بَرْبَخ (barbaḵ, “aqueduct, sewer”), and Persian بابخانه (bâb-xâne, “gatehouse”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).