bougainvillea
/ˌbuː.ɡənˈvɪl.ɪ.ə/
"bougainvillea" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bougainvillea” is uncommon English (frequency #83,066 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #83,066
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of several South American flowering shrubs or lianas, of the genus Bougainvillea, having three showy, colorful bracts attached below each group of three inconspicuous flowers.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bougainvillea |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌbuː.ɡənˈvɪl.ɪ.ə/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #83,066 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bougainvillea” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
bougainvillea is uncommon English at frequency #83,066 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌbuː.ɡənˈvɪl.ɪ.ə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of several South American flowering shrubs or lianas, of the genus Bougainvillea, having three showy, colorful bracts attached below each group of three inconspicuous flowers.".
No misspelling variants are generated for bougainvillea in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From taxonomic name Bougainvillea, from French Bougainville + -a. Named after French admiral and explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811). The correct English form is bougainvillea, spelled B-O-U-G-A-I-N-V-I-L-L-E-A.
Definition
- 1Any of several South American flowering shrubs or lianas, of the genus Bougainvillea, having three showy, colorful bracts attached below each group of three inconspicuous flowers.
Etymology
From taxonomic name Bougainvillea, from French Bougainville + -a. Named after French admiral and explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811).
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 “bougainvillea”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-U-G-A-I-N-V-I-L-L-E-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌbuː.ɡənˈvɪl.ɪ.ə/ (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.