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bloodhound

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

10 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bloodhound", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bloodhound" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "bloodhound" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

bloodhound is aEnglishnoun. It means: A large scenthound famed for its ability to follow a scent many days old, over vast distances. This dog is often used as a police dog to track missing people, fleeing suspects, or escaped prisoners. Pronounced /ˈblʌd.haʊnd/.

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Key facts for bloodhound
PropertyValue
Headwordbloodhound
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈblʌd.haʊnd/
Letters10
Frequency rank#41,532
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of bloodhound in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for bloodhound is 10 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈblʌd.haʊnd/. Corpus data places it at rank #41,532 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for bloodhound, with forms such as "bbloodhound", "blloodhound", and "blodhound". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English blodhound, blodhond; equivalent to blood + hound. Cognate with Dutch bloedhond (“bloodhound”), Middle Low German blōthunt (“bloodhound”), German Bluthund (“bloodhound”), Danish blodhund (“bloodhound”), Swedish blodhund (“bloodh… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is bloodhound, spelled B-L-O-O-D-H-O-U-N-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A large scenthound famed for its ability to follow a scent many days old, over vast distances. This dog is often used as a police dog to track missing people, fleeing suspects, or escaped prisoners.
  2. 2
    A detective or other person skilled at finding people or clues.
  3. 3
    A bloodthirsty person.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English blodhound, blodhond; equivalent to blood + hound. Cognate with Dutch bloedhond (“bloodhound”), Middle Low German blōthunt (“bloodhound”), German Bluthund (“bloodhound”), Danish blodhund (“bloodhound”), Swedish blodhund (“bloodhound”). The detective sense follows from the dog's ability to follow a trail.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: bbloodhound,blloodhound,blodhound,blodohound,blooddhound,bloodhhound,bloodhonud,bloodhoudn,bloodhoundd,bloodhounnd,bloodhuond,bloodohund,bloohdound,bolodhound,lboodhound

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bloodhound

Misspelling Variants of "bloodhound"

bbloodhound11blloodhound11blodhound9blodohound10blooddhound11bloodhhound11bloodhonud10bloodhoudn10
Misspelling Variants of "bloodhound"

Frequency rank: #41,532 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bloodhound"?
"bloodhound" is spelled B-L-O-O-D-H-O-U-N-D. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈblʌd.haʊnd/.
What does "bloodhound" mean?
As a noun, "bloodhound" means: A large scenthound famed for its ability to follow a scent many days old, over vast distances. This dog is often used as a police dog to track missing people, fleeing suspects, or escaped prisoners.
What are common misspellings of "bloodhound"?
Common misspellings include "bbloodhound", "blloodhound", "blodhound", "blodohound", "blooddhound". The correct spelling is "bloodhound".
How do you pronounce "bloodhound"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bloodhound" is /ˈblʌd.haʊnd/. 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 "bloodhound"?
Inherited from Middle English blodhound, blodhond; equivalent to blood + hound. Cognate with Dutch bloedhond (“bloodhound”), Middle Low German blōthunt (“bloodhound”), German Bluthund (“bloodhound”), Danish blodhund (“bloodhound”), Swedish blodhun... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.