big gun
"big-gun" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“big gun” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large artillery gun or one of the largest-caliber naval guns (as on a battleship).
Corpus desk
Index EN-big-gun · big gun · English
big gun · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 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 | big gun |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “big gun” in English
Rare enough to double-check
big gun is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for big gun, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is big gun, spelled B-I-G- -G-U-N.
Definition
- 1A large artillery gun or one of the largest-caliber naval guns (as on a battleship).
- 2A person, group, thing, or course of action that is powerful, influential, or particularly effective.
- 3A large surfboard used to ride very large, powerful waves.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how big gun appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
London, Nov. 1: The big guns opened fire on Paris today at mid-day.
The smaller crew was possible because the battleship was stripped of all but her big guns.
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.