body language
"body-language" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“body language” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nonverbal communication by means of facial expressions, eye behavior, gestures, posture, and the like; often thought to be involuntary.
Corpus desk
Index EN-body-language · body language · English
body language · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 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 | body language |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “body language” in English
Rare enough to double-check
body language is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
body language has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. 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.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is body language, spelled B-O-D-Y- -L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1Nonverbal communication by means of facial expressions, eye behavior, gestures, posture, and the like; often thought to be involuntary.
- 2Deliberate, usually culturally influenced, nonverbal communication using the body through facial expressions, gestures, dance, mime, etc.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how body language appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The one question is whether Paul Pogba was taken off just before half-time to rest him or because of a problem. The midfielder’s body language suggested it was the former and he appeared on the pitch after the final whistle.
There are, however, body languages that can transcend cultural lines.
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.