breakneck
/ˈbɹeɪkˌnɛk/
"breakneck" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“breakneck” is uncommon English (frequency #52,191 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,191
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Dangerously fast; hell-for-leather.
Corpus desk
Index EN-breakneck · breakneck · English
breakneck · rank #52,191 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,191
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 31,241
- PHOTO-FINISH bringer
Nearest frequency peer: bringer (+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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “breakneck”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- bodhisattva
bodhisattva
47,813 corpus weight
- boilerplate
boilerplate
47,812 corpus weight
- breakneck
breakneck
47,810 corpus weight
- bringer
bringer
47,809 corpus weight
- brokeback
brokeback
47,807 corpus weight
- Brosnan
Brosnan
47,806 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “breakneck” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | breakneck |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈbɹeɪkˌnɛk/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #52,191 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “breakneck” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
breakneck is uncommon English at frequency #52,191 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈbɹeɪkˌnɛk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Dangerously fast; hell-for-leather.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for breakneck in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From break + neck. The correct English form is breakneck, spelled B-R-E-A-K-N-E-C-K.
Definition
- 1Dangerously fast; hell-for-leather.
Etymology
From break + neck.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "breakneck", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency 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.