bogeyman
/ˈbəʊ.ɡɪˌmæn/
"bogeyman" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bogeyman” is uncommon English (frequency #52,813 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,813
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bogeyman · bogeyman · English
bogeyman · rank #52,813 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,813
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH boatman
Nearest frequency peer: boatman (-1 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 “bogeyman”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- blogpost
blogpost
47,191 corpus weight
- boastful
boastful
47,190 corpus weight
- boatman
boatman
47,189 corpus weight
- bogeyman
bogeyman
47,188 corpus weight
- boney
boney
47,187 corpus weight
- boning
boning
47,186 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bogeyman” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bogeyman |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbəʊ.ɡɪˌmæn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #52,813 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bogeyman” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bogeyman is uncommon English at frequency #52,813 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbəʊ.ɡɪˌmæn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for bogeyman in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From bogey + -man. The correct English form is bogeyman, spelled B-O-G-E-Y-M-A-N.
Definition
- 1A menacing, ghost-like monster in children's stories.
- 2Any make-believe threat, especially one used to intimidate or distract; a real threat greatly exaggerated for those purposes.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bogeyman appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonyms: bogeyperson, bogeywoman
Lay your head down child I won't let the boogeyman come Counting bodies like sheep To the rhythm of the war drums Pay no mind to the rabble Pay no mind to the rabble Head down, go to sleep To the rhythm of the war drums
Etymology
From bogey + -man.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bogeyman", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).