biography
/baɪˈɒɡɹəfi/
"biography" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“biography” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,392 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,392
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person's life story, especially one published.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | biography |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /baɪˈɒɡɹəfi/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #8,392 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “biography” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for biography is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /baɪˈɒɡɹəfi/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,392 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for biography, with forms such as "bbiography", "bigoraphy", and "biogarphy". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "biographer", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From New Latin biographia, formed from Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”) + γράφω (gráphō, “write”). The correct English form is biography, spelled B-I-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y.
Definition
- 1A person's life story, especially one published.
- 2The art of writing this kind of story.
Etymology
From New Latin biographia, formed from Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”) + γράφω (gráphō, “write”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbiography,bigoraphy,biogarphy,bioggraphy,biograhpy,biographhy,biographyy,biograpphy,biograpyh,biogrpahy,biogrraphy,biorgaphy,boigraphy,ibography
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of biography - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "biography"?
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Using “biography”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-I-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /baɪˈɒɡɹəfi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “biographer” - see the side-by-side comparison. biography vs biographer
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.