bay leaf
/ˈbeɪ liːf/
"bay-leaf" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bay leaf” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A herb derived from any of certain shrubs of the family Lauraceae and Myrtaceae, especially the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis).
Corpus desk
Index EN-bay-leaf · bay leaf · English
bay leaf · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bay leaf |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbeɪ liːf/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bay leaf” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bay leaf is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbeɪ liːf/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A herb derived from any of certain shrubs of the family Lauraceae and Myrtaceae, especially the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis).".
Zero misspellings are on record for bay leaf in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is bay leaf, spelled B-A-Y- -L-E-A-F.
Definition
- 1A herb derived from any of certain shrubs of the family Lauraceae and Myrtaceae, especially the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how bay leaf appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A piece of marigold or bay leaf was imbedded in the metal, and over it a carbuncle or chrysolite was placed.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.