billow

/ˈbɪloʊ/

//ˈbɪloʊ// noun

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

"billow" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“billow” is uncommon English (frequency #82,098 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#82,098
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound

Corpus desk

Index EN-billow · billow · English

billow · rank #82,098 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #82,098
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH bicentenary

Nearest frequency peer: bicentenary (-2 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 “billow”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “billow” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for billow
PropertyValue
Headwordbillow
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈbɪloʊ/
Letters6
Frequency rank#82,098
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “billow” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).billowfalls in this rarity band:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “bicentenary” (#82,096), “bibliophile” (#82,095), “bipartite” (#82,101). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “billow” is #82,098. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

billow is uncommon English at frequency #82,098 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbɪloʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound".

No misspelling variants are generated for billow in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *bilwe, borrowed from Old Norse bylgja, from Proto-Germanic *bulgijō. Cognates include Danish bølge (“wave”); Norwegian Bokmål bølge (“wave”), Norwegian Nynorsk bylgje (“wave”); Swedish bölja (“wave”); German Low German Bulge, Bulg, Bülg… The correct English form is billow, spelled B-I-L-L-O-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. […] Whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll, / From the world's girdle to the frozen pole;
  2. The snow fell hissing in the brine, / And the billows frothed like yeast.

Etymology

From Middle English *bilwe, borrowed from Old Norse bylgja, from Proto-Germanic *bulgijō. Cognates include Danish bølge (“wave”); Norwegian Bokmål bølge (“wave”), Norwegian Nynorsk bylgje (“wave”); Swedish bölja (“wave”); German Low German Bulge, Bulg, Bülg (“billow, wave”); German Bulge (“billow, wave”). Compare bellow, bawl.

This word in other languages

oleada(Español)flot(Français)Woge(Deutsch)vaga(Português)

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 "billow"?
"billow" is spelled B-I-L-L-O-W. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈbɪloʊ/.
What does "billow" mean?
As a noun, "billow" means: A large wave, swell, surge, or undulating mass of something, such as water, smoke, fabric or sound
How do you pronounce "billow"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "billow" is /ˈbɪloʊ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "billow"?
From Middle English *bilwe, borrowed from Old Norse bylgja, from Proto-Germanic *bulgijō. Cognates include Danish bølge (“wave”); Norwegian Bokmål bølge (“wave”), Norwegian Nynorsk bylgje (“wave”); Swedish bölja (“wave”); German Low German Bulge, ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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 "billow", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Beeman#82,087Baluch#82,074Auster#82,063Atholl#82,062

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list