bonobo
/bəˈnəʊ̯ˌbəʊ̯/
"bonobo" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bonobo” is uncommon English (frequency #60,666 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,666
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bonobo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bəˈnəʊ̯ˌbəʊ̯/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #60,666 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bonobo” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
bonobo is uncommon English at frequency #60,666 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /bəˈnəʊ̯ˌbəʊ̯/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for bonobo, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Bolobo, a village on the Congo River where Europeans first made contact with the species. Bolobo is possibly imitative of the bubbling of the rapids at that section of the Congo. The correct English form is bonobo, spelled B-O-N-O-B-O.
Definition
- 1A great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.
Etymology
From Bolobo, a village on the Congo River where Europeans first made contact with the species. Bolobo is possibly imitative of the bubbling of the rapids at that section of the Congo.
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 “bonobo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-N-O-B-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bəˈnəʊ̯ˌbəʊ̯/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.