bawling

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"bawling" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“bawling” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #38,749. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#38,749
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of bawl

Corpus desk

Index EN-bawling · bawling · English

bawling · rank #38,749 · 11 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #38,749
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH bate

Nearest frequency peer: bate (-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 “bawling”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “bawling” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bawling vs bling
71% similar
bawling vs bowing
71% similar
bawling vs bowling
86% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bawling
PropertyValue
Headwordbawling
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters7
Frequency rank#38,749
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “bawling”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).bawlinglands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “bate” (#38,748), “bayard” (#38,750), “Basra” (#38,747). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “bawling” is #38,749. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around bawling, averb. Corpus frequency is #38,749 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Dominant gloss: "present participle and gerund of bawl".

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for bawling, with forms such as "abwling", "balwing", and "bawilng". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bling", "bowing", "bowling", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is bawling, spelled B-A-W-L-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of bawl

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how bawling appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • abwling
  • balwing
  • bawilng
  • bawlign
  • bawlingg
  • bawlinng
  • bawlling
  • bawlnig
  • bawwling
  • bbawling
  • bwaling

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bawling - 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.

abwling2balwing2bawilng2bawlign2bawlingg1bawlinng1bawlling1bawlnig2
Edit distance from "bawling"

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 "bawling"?
"bawling" is spelled B-A-W-L-I-N-G.
What does "bawling" mean?
As a verb, "bawling" means: present participle and gerund of bawl
What words are commonly confused with "bawling"?
"bawling" is commonly confused with "bling", "bowing", "bowling". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "bawling" come from?
"bawling" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bawling", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

beastly#38,752balling#38,742bonjour#38,763bulwark#38,770

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

beetroot11 variantsBanerjee11 variantsautumnal11 variantsbluffing11 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list