bordello
/bɔː(ɹ)ˈdɛləʊ/
"bordello" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bordello” is uncommon English (frequency #71,343 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,343
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A brothel.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bordello · bordello · English
bordello · rank #71,343 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,343
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH bouche
Nearest frequency peer: bouche (+2 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 “bordello”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Blok
Blok
28,666 corpus weight
- bordello
bordello
28,658 corpus weight
- bouche
bouche
28,656 corpus weight
- Bramley
Bramley
28,654 corpus weight
- Brannigan
Brannigan
28,651 corpus weight
- brassica
brassica
28,649 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bordello” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bordello |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɔː(ɹ)ˈdɛləʊ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #71,343 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bordello” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bordello is uncommon English at frequency #71,343 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /bɔː(ɹ)ˈdɛləʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A brothel.".
bordello doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Italian bordello. Distantly related to brothel, through Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carve, cut, split, rub”). Doublet of bordel. The correct English form is bordello, spelled B-O-R-D-E-L-L-O.
Definition
- 1A brothel.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how bordello appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“You know, this house does have a belfry filled with local bats. Maybe Laszlo went up there.” “Oh, so like my darling perverted husband, to sniff out the local bordello immediately upon arrival. [chuckles] Could you take me to the belfry?”
Etymology
From Italian bordello. Distantly related to brothel, through Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carve, cut, split, rub”). Doublet of bordel.
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 "bordello", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).