blubber
/ˈblʌbə/
"blubber" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“blubber” is an uncommon English word, ranked #50,986 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #50,986
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Often followed by out: to cry out (words) while sobbing.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | blubber |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈblʌbə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #50,986 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “blubber” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for blubber is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈblʌbə/. Corpus data places it at rank #50,986 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No generated misspelling entries exist for blubber in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Late Middle English bloberen, bluberen (“to bubble, seethe”); and the noun from Late Middle English blober, bluber (“bubble; bubbling water; foaming waves; fish or whale oil; entrails, intestines; (medicine) pustule”), both probably… The correct English form is blubber, spelled B-L-U-B-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1Often followed by out: to cry out (words) while sobbing.
- 2To wet (one's eyes or face) by crying; to beweep; also, to cause (one's face) to disfigure or swell through crying.
- 3Often followed by forth: to let (one's tears) flow freely.
- 4To cry or weep freely and noisily; to sob.
- 5To bubble or bubble up; also, to make a bubbling sound like water boiling.
Etymology
The verb is derived from Late Middle English bloberen, bluberen (“to bubble, seethe”); and the noun from Late Middle English blober, bluber (“bubble; bubbling water; foaming waves; fish or whale oil; entrails, intestines; (medicine) pustule”), both probably onomatopoeic, representing the movement or sound of a bubbling liquid, or the movement of lips forming bubbles (compare bleb and blob, thought to be similarly imitative). As both the verb and noun are attested in the 14th century, it is difficult to tell which one developed first; the Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the noun may be derived from the verb. Verb etymology 1 sense 1.2 (“to cause (one’s face) to disfigure or swell through crying”) is influenced by blubber (adjective).
This word in other languages
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 “blubber”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-L-U-B-B-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈblʌbə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.