borage
/ˈbɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/
"borage" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“borage” is uncommon English (frequency #97,873 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,873
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Borago officinalis, a Mediterranean plant with rough, cucumber-flavored leaves and stems, used in salads and cooked.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | borage |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #97,873 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “borage” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
borage is uncommon English at frequency #97,873 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Borago officinalis, a Mediterranean plant with rough, cucumber-flavored leaves and stems, used in salads and cooked.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for borage, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English borage, borrowed from Old French borage (compare French bourrache), from Medieval Latin borrago, either from Latin borra (“short wool, rough hair”) or Arabic أَبُو العَرَق (ʔabū l-ʕaraq, literally “father of sweat”). The correct English form is borage, spelled B-O-R-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1Borago officinalis, a Mediterranean plant with rough, cucumber-flavored leaves and stems, used in salads and cooked.
Etymology
From Middle English borage, borrowed from Old French borage (compare French bourrache), from Medieval Latin borrago, either from Latin borra (“short wool, rough hair”) or Arabic أَبُو العَرَق (ʔabū l-ʕaraq, literally “father of sweat”).
Synonyms
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 “borage”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-R-A-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ (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.