barrow
/ˈbæɹ.əʊ/
"barrow" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barrow” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #17,548 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #17,548
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A mountain.
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) |
Where “barrow” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for barrow is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbæɹ.əʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,548 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 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.
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
How do you spell "barrow"?
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Using “barrow”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-A-R-R-O-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbæɹ.əʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “brow” - see the side-by-side comparison. barrow vs brow
- 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.