burgess
/ˈbɜːd͡ʒɪs/
"burgess" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“burgess” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #14,286. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #14,286
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An inhabitant of a borough with full rights; a citizen.
Corpus desk
Index EN-burgess · burgess · English
burgess · rank #14,286 · 9 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-MID #14,286
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH butts
Nearest frequency peer: butts (+1 rank slots)
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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “burgess”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- brawl
brawl
85,719 corpus weight
- Brittany
Brittany
85,718 corpus weight
- burgess
burgess
85,715 corpus weight
- butts
butts
85,714 corpus weight
- Camden
Camden
85,713 corpus weight
- Cameroon
Cameroon
85,712 corpus weight
What this shows “burgess” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | burgess |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɜːd͡ʒɪs/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #14,286 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “burgess”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around burgess (IPA /ˈbɜːd͡ʒɪs/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #14,286 among 4,121 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for burgess, with forms such as "bburgess", "brugess", and "bugress". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "Burgos", "Burmese", "burger", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English burgeis, from Anglo-Norman burgeis, of Proto-Germanic origin; either from Late Latin burgensis (from Latin burgus), or from Frankish *burg, both from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“stronghold, city”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ-. See also… The correct English form is burgess, spelled B-U-R-G-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1An inhabitant of a borough with full rights; a citizen.
- 2A town magistrate.
- 3A representative of a borough in the Parliament.
- 4A member of the House of Burgesses, a legislative body in colonial America, established by the Virginia Company to provide civil rule in the colonies.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how burgess appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. In this way all respectable burgesses, down to fifty years ago, spent their evenings.
If any burgess be appealed of a plea whereon wager of battle may issue by a villein or outdweller , let him defend himself by oath, that is to say by the 36 men, unless he is challenged in respect of a crime that the law requires him to defend by battle, in no case ought a burgess to fight against a villein if he have challenged him unless before the disp…
Etymology
From Middle English burgeis, from Anglo-Norman burgeis, of Proto-Germanic origin; either from Late Latin burgensis (from Latin burgus), or from Frankish *burg, both from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“stronghold, city”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ-. See also borough, bourgeois, burgish.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bburgess
- brugess
- bugress
- buregss
- burges
- burggess
- burgses
- burrgess
- ubrgess
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of burgess - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "burgess", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).