barleycorn
/ˈbɑː(ɹ)liˌkɔː(ɹ)n/
"barleycorn" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barleycorn” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A grain of barley.
Corpus desk
Index EN-barleycorn · barleycorn · English
barleycorn · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | barleycorn |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɑː(ɹ)liˌkɔː(ɹ)n/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “barleycorn” in English
Rare enough to double-check
barleycorn is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbɑː(ɹ)liˌkɔː(ɹ)n/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for barleycorn, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From barley + corn. The correct English form is barleycorn, spelled B-A-R-L-E-Y-C-O-R-N.
Definition
- 1A grain of barley.
- 2The length of such a grain; a unit of length of approximately one third (or sometimes one quarter) of an inch or eight millimetres, still used as a basis for shoe sizes.
- 3A small groove between two moldings.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how barleycorn appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The Town Mouse came, and they sat down to a dinner of barleycorns and roots, the latter of which had a distinctly earthy flavour.
This trip to Italy has actually enlarged the diameter of my head thirteen barleycorns!
Etymology
From barley + corn.
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.