bonobo
/bəˈnəʊ̯ˌbəʊ̯/
"bonobo" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bonobo” is uncommon English (frequency #60,666 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,666
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A great ape, Pan paniscus, from Africa south of the Congo river.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bonobo · bonobo · English
bonobo · rank #60,666 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #60,666
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH boombox
Nearest frequency peer: boombox (+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 “bonobo”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- bobblehead
bobblehead
39,339 corpus weight
- Bolling
Bolling
39,337 corpus weight
- bonobo
bonobo
39,335 corpus weight
- boombox
boombox
39,334 corpus weight
- Boracay
Boracay
39,333 corpus weight
- boughs
boughs
39,332 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bonobo” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “bonobo” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bonobo is uncommon English at frequency #60,666 among 4,121 “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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bonobo", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).