British
/ˈbɹɪtɪʃ/
"british" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“British” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #671 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #671
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The residents or inhabitants of Great Britain.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | British |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɹɪtɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #671 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “British” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for British is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbɹɪtɪʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #671 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for British, with forms such as "bbritish", "birtish", and "briitsh". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "Brits", "brutish", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Brittish, from Old English Brettisċ. The spelling with single -t- appears in the 13th century under the influence of Medieval Latin Britannicus, but spelling with -tt- persists alongside -t- during the 13th to at least 18th centuries. In… The correct English form is British, spelled B-R-I-T-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1The residents or inhabitants of Great Britain.
- 2The citizens or inhabitants of the United Kingdom.
- 3The earlier inhabitants of southern Britain, prior to the Anglo-Saxon invasion and subsequent migrations.
- 4Synonym of Welsh: the Welsh people.
Etymology
From Middle English Brittish, from Old English Brettisċ. The spelling with single -t- appears in the 13th century under the influence of Medieval Latin Britannicus, but spelling with -tt- persists alongside -t- during the 13th to at least 18th centuries. In reference to the island of Great Britain from ca. 1400 (Latin natio Anglica sive Britannica, Brittisshe occean 1398, the Britishe nacion 1548). As a noun, referring to the British people, British soldiers, etc. from ca. 1600.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbritish,birtish,briitsh,britihs,britishh,britissh,britsih,brittish,brritish,brtiish,rbitish
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of British - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "British"?
What does "British" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "British"?
How do you pronounce "British"?
What is the origin of the word "British"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “British”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-R-I-T-I-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɹɪtɪʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Brits” - see the side-by-side comparison. British vs Brits
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.