breathalyzer
/ˈbɹɛθəlaɪzɚ/
"breathalyzer" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“breathalyzer” is uncommon English (frequency #59,923 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #59,923
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A device that measures alcohol in expired air so as to estimate the concentration of alcohol in a person's blood; used by traffic police in cases of suspected driving while under the influence of a...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | breathalyzer |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɹɛθəlaɪzɚ/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #59,923 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “breathalyzer” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
breathalyzer is uncommon English at frequency #59,923 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbɹɛθəlaɪzɚ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A device that measures alcohol in expired air so as to estimate the concentration of alcohol in a person's blood; used by traffic police in cases of suspected driving while under the influence of a...".
Zero misspellings are on record for breathalyzer in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Blend of breath + analyzer. Originally a trademark of Smith & Wesson. The correct English form is breathalyzer, spelled B-R-E-A-T-H-A-L-Y-Z-E-R.
Definition
- 1A device that measures alcohol in expired air so as to estimate the concentration of alcohol in a person's blood; used by traffic police in cases of suspected driving while under the influence of alcohol.
Etymology
Blend of breath + analyzer. Originally a trademark of Smith & Wesson.
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 “breathalyzer”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-R-E-A-T-H-A-L-Y-Z-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɹɛθəlaɪzɚ/ (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.