bishop
/ˈbɪʃəp/
"bishop" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bishop” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,742 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,742
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An overseer of congregations: either any such overseer, generally speaking, or (in Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, etc.) an official in the church hierarchy (actively or nominally) gov...
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 | bishop |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɪʃəp/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #3,742 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bishop” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bishop is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɪʃəp/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,742 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for bishop, with forms such as "bbishop", "bihsop", and "bishhop". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "bison", "bishops", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bischop, bishop, bisshop, biscop, from Old English bisċop (“bishop”), from Proto-West Germanic *biskop, from Vulgar Latin (e)biscopus, from classical Latin episcopus (“overseer, supervisor”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “ove… The correct English form is bishop, spelled B-I-S-H-O-P.
Definition
- 1An overseer of congregations: either any such overseer, generally speaking, or (in Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, etc.) an official in the church hierarchy (actively or nominally) governing a diocese, supervising the church's priests, deacons, and property in its territory.
- 2An overseer of congregations: either any such overseer, generally speaking, or (in Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, etc.) an official in the church hierarchy (actively or nominally) governing a diocese, supervising the church's priests, deacons, and property in its territory.
- 3The holder of the Greek or Roman position of episcopus, supervisor over the public dole of grain, etc.
- 4Any watchman, inspector, or overlooker.
- 5A chief of the Festival of Fools or St. Nicholas Day.
- 6The chess piece denoted ♗ or ♝ which moves along diagonal lines and developed from the shatranj alfil ("elephant") and was originally known as the aufil or archer in English.
- 7Any of various African birds of the genus Euplectes; a kind of weaverbird closely related to the widowbirds.
- 8A ladybug or ladybird, beetles of the family Coccinellidae.
- 9A flowering plant of the genus Bifora.
- 10A sweet drink made from wine, usually with oranges, lemons, and sugar; mulled and spiced port.
- 11A bustle.
- 12A children's smock or pinafore.
Etymology
From Middle English bischop, bishop, bisshop, biscop, from Old English bisċop (“bishop”), from Proto-West Germanic *biskop, from Vulgar Latin (e)biscopus, from classical Latin episcopus (“overseer, supervisor”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer”), from ἐπί (epí, “over”) + σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”), used in Greek and Latin both generally and as a title of civil officers. Cognate with all European terms for the position in various Christian churches; compare also Middle English bisp (“bishop”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbishop,bihsop,bishhop,bishopp,bishpo,bisohp,bisshop,bsihop,ibshop
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bishop - 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
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Using “bishop”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-I-S-H-O-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɪʃəp/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “bison” - see the side-by-side comparison. bishop vs bison
- 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.