barge
/bɑːd͡ʒ/
"barge" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barge” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,893 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,893
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A large flat-bottomed towed or self-propelled boat used mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods or bulk cargo.
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 | barge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɑːd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #14,893 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “barge” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for barge is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɑːd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,893 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for barge, with forms such as "abrge", "bagre", and "bareg". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "base", "bars", "barn", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English barge, borrowed from Old French barge (“boat”), from Vulgar Latin *barga, a variant of Late Latin barca, a regular syncope of Vulgar Latin *barica, from Classical Latin bāris, from Ancient Greek βᾶρις (bâris, “Egyptian boat”), from Copti… The correct English form is barge, spelled B-A-R-G-E.
Definition
- 1A large flat-bottomed towed or self-propelled boat used mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods or bulk cargo.
- 2A richly decorated ceremonial state vessel propelled by rowers for river processions.
- 3A large flat-bottomed coastal trading vessel having a large spritsail and jib-headed topsail, a fore staysail and a very small mizen, and having leeboards instead of a keel.
- 4One of the boats of a warship having fourteen oars
- 5The wooden disk in which bread or biscuit is placed on a mess table.
- 6A double-decked passenger or freight vessel, towed by a steamboat.
- 7A large bus used for excursions.
Etymology
From Middle English barge, borrowed from Old French barge (“boat”), from Vulgar Latin *barga, a variant of Late Latin barca, a regular syncope of Vulgar Latin *barica, from Classical Latin bāris, from Ancient Greek βᾶρις (bâris, “Egyptian boat”), from Coptic ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ (baare, “small boat”), from Demotic Egyptian br, from Egyptian bꜣjrb-bA-A-y:r*Z1-P1 (“transport ship”). Doublet of bark, barque and baris.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abrge,bagre,bareg,bargge,barrge,bbarge,brage
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of barge - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “barge”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-A-R-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɑːd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “base” - see the side-by-side comparison. barge vs base
- 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.