bunker
/ˈbʌŋ.kə/
"bunker" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bunker” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,660 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,660
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
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 | bunker |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbʌŋ.kə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #11,660 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bunker” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bunker is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbʌŋ.kə/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,660 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for bunker, with forms such as "bbunker", "bnuker", and "bukner". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "buyer", "burke", "bunks", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 6.1 (“box or chest, the lid of which serves as a seat”), from Scots bunker (“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”), from Early Scots b… The correct English form is bunker, spelled B-U-N-K-E-R.
Definition
- 1A hardened shelter, often partly buried or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks.
- 2A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.
- 3The coal compartment on a tank engine; it can also refer to that on a tender engine.
- 4Ellipsis of bunker oil (usually plural).
- 5A hazard on a golf course consisting of a sand-filled hollow.
- 6An obstacle used to block an opposing player's view and field of fire.
- 7A large bin or container for storing coal, often built outdoors in the yard of a house.
- 8A sort of box or chest, as in a window, the lid of which serves as a seat.
- 9A kitchen worktop.
Etymology
The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 6.1 (“box or chest, the lid of which serves as a seat”), from Scots bunker (“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”), from Early Scots bunker, bunkur, bonker (“a chest or box, often serving as a seat”), probably from Old Norse bunki (“a heap”) (probably whence bunk (“sleeping berth in a ship, train, etc.”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkô (“a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ- (“thick”) or *bʰeg- (“to billow, swell; to arch, bend, curve (?)”). Compare Middle Low German bunge (“drum, container”), Middle High German bunge (“drum”). Sense 1 (“hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks”) was derived from German Bunker during World War II, which was itself from bunker (“large bin or container for storing coal”) (sense 5). The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbunker,bnuker,bukner,bunekr,bunkerr,bunkker,bunkre,bunnker,ubnker
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bunker - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "bunker"?
What does "bunker" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "bunker"?
How do you pronounce "bunker"?
What is the origin of the word "bunker"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “bunker”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-U-N-K-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbʌŋ.kə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “buyer” - see the side-by-side comparison. bunker vs buyer
- 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.