boatswain
/ˈbəʊ.sən/
"boatswain" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“boatswain” is an uncommon English word, ranked #73,006 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #73,006
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A person aboard ship who is in charge of various maritime affairs.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | boatswain |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbəʊ.sən/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #73,006 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “boatswain” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for boatswain is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbəʊ.sən/. Corpus data places it at rank #73,006 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for boatswain in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English botswain, botswein, bote-swayn, from late Old English bātsweġen, from bāt (“boat”) + sweġen (“swain”), the latter element a borrowing from Old Norse sveinn (“boy”); equivalent to boat + swain (“boy, servant”). The correct English form is boatswain, spelled B-O-A-T-S-W-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1A person aboard ship who is in charge of various maritime affairs.
- 2A person aboard ship who is in charge of various maritime affairs.
- 3A kind of gull, the jaeger.
- 4The tropicbird.
Etymology
From Middle English botswain, botswein, bote-swayn, from late Old English bātsweġen, from bāt (“boat”) + sweġen (“swain”), the latter element a borrowing from Old Norse sveinn (“boy”); equivalent to boat + swain (“boy, servant”).
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 “boatswain”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-A-T-S-W-A-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbəʊ.sən/ (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.