broch
/ˈbɹɒx/
"broch" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“broch” is uncommon English (frequency #92,411 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #92,411
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A type of Iron Age stone tower with hollow double-layered walls found on Orkney, Shetland, in the Hebrides and parts of the Scottish mainland.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | broch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɹɒx/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #92,411 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “broch” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
broch is uncommon English at frequency #92,411 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbɹɒx/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A type of Iron Age stone tower with hollow double-layered walls found on Orkney, Shetland, in the Hebrides and parts of the Scottish mainland.".
broch doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Scots broch, from Old Norse borg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz. Doublet of borough and burgh. The correct English form is broch, spelled B-R-O-C-H.
Definition
- 1A type of Iron Age stone tower with hollow double-layered walls found on Orkney, Shetland, in the Hebrides and parts of the Scottish mainland.
Etymology
From Scots broch, from Old Norse borg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz. Doublet of borough and burgh.
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 “broch”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-R-O-C-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɹɒx/ (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.