blooper

/ˈbluː.pə/

//ˈbluː.pə// noun

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

"blooper" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“blooper” is uncommon English (frequency #57,901 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,901
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A blunder, an error.

Corpus desk

Index EN-blooper · blooper · English

blooper · rank #57,901 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #57,901
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH boggy

Nearest frequency peer: boggy (+3 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 “blooper”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for blooper
PropertyValue
Headwordblooper
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈbluː.pə/
Letters7
Frequency rank#57,901
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “blooper” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).blooperfalls 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: “boggy” (#57,904), “bitmap” (#57,897), “bipedal” (#57,896). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “blooper” is #57,901. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

blooper is uncommon English at frequency #57,901 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbluː.pə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.

blooper has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From bloop + -er, of US origin. The correct English form is blooper, spelled B-L-O-O-P-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    A blunder, an error.
  2. 2
    A fly ball that is weakly hit just over the infielders.
  3. 3
    A filmed or videotaped outtake that has recorded an amusing accident or mistake.
  4. 4
    A gaff-rigged fore-and-aft sail set from and aft of the aftmost mast of a square-rigged ship; a spanker.
  5. 5
    A radio which interferes with other radios, causing them to bloop (squeal loudly).
  6. 6
    The Vietnam-era M79 grenade launcher (due to its distinctive report).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Why do my readers and informants so delight in bloopers and boo-boos, fluffs and flubs, and goofs and gaffes? […] The humor in bloopers lies, in part, in the listener's awareness of the speaker's vulnerability. It is the very artlessness of linguistic lapses that makes them so endearing and makes us feel superior.
  2. This chapter describes the most common responsiveness bloopers and explains why developers commit them. It is organized differently from the other bloopers chapters of this book because responsiveness bloopers are all closely related to one another; they are all really variations on the same underlying blooper, with the same underlying reasons and solutions.

Etymology

From bloop + -er, of US origin.

This word in other languages

perle(Français)Patzer(Deutsch)

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 "blooper"?
"blooper" is spelled B-L-O-O-P-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈbluː.pə/.
What does "blooper" mean?
As a noun, "blooper" means: A blunder, an error.
How do you pronounce "blooper"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "blooper" is /ˈbluː.pə/. 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 "blooper"?
From bloop + -er, of US origin. 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 "blooper", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

bipedal#57,896Brescia#57,912carting#57,924cession#57,931

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list