barrow
/ˈbæɹ.əʊ/
"barrow" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barrow” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #17,548. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #17,548
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A mountain.
Corpus desk
Index EN-barrow · barrow · English
barrow · rank #17,548 · 7 variants · 17 confusables
- FREQ-MID #17,548
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 17 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH baroness
Nearest frequency peer: baroness (-1 rank slots)
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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “barrow”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- authorize
authorize
82,456 corpus weight
- baroness
baroness
82,454 corpus weight
- barrow
barrow
82,453 corpus weight
- begs
begs
82,452 corpus weight
- binds
binds
82,450 corpus weight
- biographical
biographical
82,449 corpus weight
What this shows “barrow” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | barrow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbæɹ.əʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #17,548 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “barrow”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around barrow (IPA /ˈbæɹ.əʊ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #17,548 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for barrow, with forms such as "abrrow", "barorw", and "barow". 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 17 confusable-pair relationships, "brow", "Barry", "borrow", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English berwe, bergh, from Old English beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow, burial place”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz (“hill, mountain”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰérǵʰos (“hill”), from Proto-Indo-European *… The correct English form is barrow, spelled B-A-R-R-O-W.
Definition
- 1A mountain.
- 2A hill.
- 3A mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves.
- 4A heap of rubbish, attle, or other such refuse.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how barrow appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Meronym: dolmen
“Will you ask our oldest warriors to build me a barrow?”
Etymology
From Middle English berwe, bergh, from Old English beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow, burial place”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz (“hill, mountain”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰérǵʰos (“hill”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“to rise up, ascend; to be elevated, up high”). Doublet of berg and bergh. Cognates Cognate with Scots burrow (“mound, tumulus, barrow”), North Frisian Bārig, beerch, beeri, beerj, berag, berig, berri, bärj (“mountain”), Saterland Frisian Bierich, Bíerig, Bäirch (“mountain”), West Frisian berch (“mountain”), Cimbrian pèrge (“mountain”), Dutch berg (“mountain”), German Berg (“mountain”), German Low German Barg (“mountain”), Limburgish berg, Bärrech (“hill, mountain”), Luxembourgish Bierg (“mountain”), Mòcheno pèrg (“mountain”), Yiddish באַרג (barg, “mountain”), Danish bjerg (“mountain”), Elfdalian bjärr (“hill, mountain”), Faroese berg, bjarg (“cliff”), bjørg (“cliffs”), Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish berg (“mountain”); also Northern Luri برگ (berg, “mountain”), Polish brzeg (“bank, shore”), Russian бе́рег (béreg, “bank, shore”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- abrrow
- barorw
- barow
- barroww
- barrwo
- bbarrow
- brarow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of barrow - 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "barrow", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).