beachcomber
/ˈbit͡ʃˌkoʊmɚ/
"beachcomber" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“beachcomber” is uncommon English (frequency #96,770 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #96,770
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A seaman who is not prepared to work but hangs around port areas living off the charity of others.
Corpus desk
Index EN-beachcomber · beachcomber · English
beachcomber · rank #96,770 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #96,770
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH bellhop
Nearest frequency peer: bellhop (+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.
Long-tail ranks near “beachcomber”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- barbel
barbel
3,238 corpus weight
- beachcomber
beachcomber
3,231 corpus weight
- bellhop
bellhop
3,230 corpus weight
- Bergoglio
Bergoglio
3,228 corpus weight
- Bessarabia
Bessarabia
3,227 corpus weight
- Bethpage
Bethpage
3,226 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “beachcomber” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | beachcomber |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbit͡ʃˌkoʊmɚ/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #96,770 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “beachcomber” in English
Rare enough to double-check
beachcomber is uncommon English at frequency #96,770 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbit͡ʃˌkoʊmɚ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
beachcomber doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From beach + comber. The correct English form is beachcomber, spelled B-E-A-C-H-C-O-M-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1A seaman who is not prepared to work but hangs around port areas living off the charity of others.
- 2Any loafer around a waterfront.
- 3A person who collects marine salvage at the coast.
- 4A long rolling wave of the sea.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how beachcomber appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The society of beach-combers always repays the small pains you need be at to enjoy it. They are easy of approach and affable in conversation.
Now and again a wreck was to be seen, or a vessel left lonely and sad on a reef, her rigging dismantled and only waiting for beachcombers to come and break her up for the sake of her timber and old iron.
Etymology
From beach + comber.
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 "beachcomber", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).