boa constrictor
"boa-constrictor" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“boa constrictor” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large tropical American snake, Boa constrictor, that kills its prey by squeezing them.
Corpus desk
Index EN-boa-constrictor · boa constrictor · English
boa constrictor · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | boa constrictor |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “boa constrictor” in English
Rare enough to double-check
boa constrictor is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for boa constrictor, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Unadapted borrowing from New Latin Boa constrictor. The correct English form is boa constrictor, spelled B-O-A- -C-O-N-S-T-R-I-C-T-O-R.
Definition
- 1A large tropical American snake, Boa constrictor, that kills its prey by squeezing them.
- 2Any large boa or python.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how boa constrictor appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
After him followed a blesbok, then an impala, then a koodoo, then more goats, and many other animals, including a girl sewn up in the shining scaly hide of a boa-constrictor, several yards of which trailed along the ground behind her.
We found boa constrictors or pythons, whip snakes, the handsome but deadly tiger snake, so called from the peculiar marks on its skin[.]
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from New Latin Boa constrictor.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.