bomb
/bɒm/
"bomb" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bomb” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,475 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,475
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An explosive device used or intended as a weapon, especially, one dropped from an aircraft.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bomb |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɒm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #2,475 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bomb” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bomb is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɒm/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,475 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 29 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for bomb, with forms such as "bbomb", "bmob", and "bobm". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "boy", "box", "bow", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French bombe, from Italian bomba, from Latin bombus (“a booming sound”), from Ancient Greek βόμβος (bómbos, “booming, humming, buzzing”), imitative of the sound itself. Doublet of bombe. Compare boom. The correct English form is bomb, spelled B-O-M-B.
Definition
- 1An explosive device used or intended as a weapon, especially, one dropped from an aircraft.
- 2An explosive device used or intended as a weapon, especially, one dropped from an aircraft.
- 3An explosive device used or intended as a weapon, especially, one dropped from an aircraft.
- 4An explosive device used or intended as a weapon, especially, one dropped from an aircraft.
- 5An explosive device used or intended as a weapon, especially, one dropped from an aircraft.
- 6An explosive device used or intended as a weapon, especially, one dropped from an aircraft.
- 7Any explosive charge.
- 8A bag or balloon containing a substance such as water, flour, or paint, designed to burst and splatter.
- 9Anything that is at risk of exploding (literally) or that has exploded.
- 10A fart.
- 11A failure; an unpopular commercial product.
- 12A car in poor condition.
- 13A large amount of money.
- 14Something highly effective or attractive.
- 15Something highly effective or attractive.
- 16Something highly effective or attractive.
- 17Something highly effective or attractive.
- 18Something highly effective or attractive.
- 19Something highly effective or attractive.
- 20Something highly effective or attractive.
- 21Something highly effective or attractive.
- 22Something highly effective or attractive.
- 23A cyclone whose central pressure drops at an average rate of at least one millibar per hour for at least 24 hours.
- 24A heavy-walled container designed to permit chemical reactions under high pressure.
- 25A great booming noise; a hollow sound.
- 26A woman’s breast.
- 27A professional wrestling throw in which an opponent is lifted and then slammed back-first down to the mat.
- 28A recreational drug ground up, wrapped, and swallowed.
- 29An act of jumping into water while keeping one's arms and legs tucked into the body, as in a squatting position, to maximize splashing.
Etymology
From French bombe, from Italian bomba, from Latin bombus (“a booming sound”), from Ancient Greek βόμβος (bómbos, “booming, humming, buzzing”), imitative of the sound itself. Doublet of bombe. Compare boom.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbomb,bmob,bobm,bombb,bommb,obmb
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bomb - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “bomb”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-M-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɒm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “boy” - see the side-by-side comparison. bomb vs boy
- 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.