barrio
"barrio" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barrio” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #34,792 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #34,792
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 16
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A municipality or subdivision of a municipality in Spanish America, and in Spain itself.
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 | barrio |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #34,792 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 16 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “barrio” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for barrio is 6 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #34,792 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for barrio, with forms such as "abrrio", "bario", and "bariro". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 16 confusable-pair relationships, "Barry", "barrow", "Barron", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Spanish barrio, from Arabic بَرِّيّ (barriyy, “wild”). The correct English form is barrio, spelled B-A-R-R-I-O.
Definition
- 1A municipality or subdivision of a municipality in Spanish America, and in Spain itself.
- 2A slum on the periphery of a major city, or a low to middle-class neighborhood in a lesser city, in Venezuela or the Dominican Republic.
- 3A rural barangay or neighborhood.
- 4An area or neighborhood in a US city inhabited predominantly by Spanish-speakers or people of Hispanic origin.
Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish barrio, from Arabic بَرِّيّ (barriyy, “wild”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abrrio,bario,bariro,barroi,bbarrio,brario
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of barrio - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "barrio"?
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Using “barrio”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-A-R-R-I-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “Barry” - see the side-by-side comparison. barrio vs Barry
- 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.