brown noser
"brown-noser" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“brown noser” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One who brownnoses (flatters or humors somebody in an obsequious manner for personal gain); one who sucks up; a bootlicker, dickrider, ass-kisser, sycophant.
Corpus desk
Index EN-brown-noser · brown noser · English
brown noser · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | brown noser |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “brown noser” in English
Rare enough to double-check
brown noser is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "One who brownnoses (flatters or humors somebody in an obsequious manner for personal gain); one who sucks up; a bootlicker, dickrider, ass-kisser, sycophant.".
No misspelling variants are generated for brown noser 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, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: A metaphorical image: when kissing the buttocks of another person, one's nose is liable to be covered in brown feces. The correct English form is brown noser, spelled B-R-O-W-N- -N-O-S-E-R.
Definition
- 1One who brownnoses (flatters or humors somebody in an obsequious manner for personal gain); one who sucks up; a bootlicker, dickrider, ass-kisser, sycophant.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how brown noser appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“Unbelievable. Boimler's cozying up with those brownnosers to get out of trash day? Such a great call.” “More trash for the rest of us. I smell adventure.”
“W-wait, why isn't Gumball in here with us?” [Laszlo chuckles] “Because Guillermo is the only one out of all of you that has ever shown me any kindness.” “[coughs] Brownnoser.” “And yet you all treat him so shabbily that even after all this time of waiting to become one of you... he's force to give up and take matters into his own hands.”
Etymology
A metaphorical image: when kissing the buttocks of another person, one's nose is liable to be covered in brown feces.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.