barque
/bɑɹk/
"barque" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barque” is uncommon English (frequency #79,288 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,288
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sailing vessel of three or more masts, with all masts but the sternmost square-rigged, the sternmost being fore-and-aft-rigged
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | barque |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɑɹk/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #79,288 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “barque” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
barque is uncommon English at frequency #79,288 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /bɑɹk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for barque, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English barke (“boat”), borrowed from Middle French barque, itself borrowed from Italian barca or a Medieval Latin equivalent, from Late Latin barca, from Vulgar Latin barica, from Ancient Greek βᾶρις (bâris) 'Egyptian boat', from Coptic ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ (… The correct English form is barque, spelled B-A-R-Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1A sailing vessel of three or more masts, with all masts but the sternmost square-rigged, the sternmost being fore-and-aft-rigged
- 2Any small sailing vessel.
- 3A sailing vessel or boat of any kind.
Etymology
From Middle English barke (“boat”), borrowed from Middle French barque, itself borrowed from Italian barca or a Medieval Latin equivalent, from Late Latin barca, from Vulgar Latin barica, from Ancient Greek βᾶρις (bâris) 'Egyptian boat', from Coptic ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ (baare, “small boat”), from Demotic Egyptian br, from Egyptian bꜣjr (“transport ship, type of fish”), b-bA-A-y:r*Z1-P1. Doublet of bark, barge and baris. Possibly cognate with Spanish barco.
Synonyms
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); 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
How do you spell "barque"?
What does "barque" mean?
How do you pronounce "barque"?
What is the origin of the word "barque"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “barque”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-A-R-Q-U-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɑɹk/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.