burlap
/ˈbɝlæp/
"burlap" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“burlap” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #42,041. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #42,041
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A very strong, coarse cloth, made from jute, flax, or hemp, and used to make sacks, etc.
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 | burlap |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbɝlæp/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #42,041 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “burlap” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around burlap (IPA /ˈbɝlæp/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #42,041 among 31,241 “B” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A very strong, coarse cloth, made from jute, flax, or hemp, and used to make sacks, etc.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for burlap, with forms such as "bburlap", "brulap", and "bulrap". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "burp", "Burma", "burly", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Uncertain. Attested since about 1695 in the spelling bore-lap, borelapp. Likely from burel (“a coarse woollen cloth”) + lap (“flap of a garment”), where the first element is from Middle English burel, borel. Others feel that "its character and time of appea… The correct English form is burlap, spelled B-U-R-L-A-P.
Definition
- 1A very strong, coarse cloth, made from jute, flax, or hemp, and used to make sacks, etc.
Etymology
Uncertain. Attested since about 1695 in the spelling bore-lap, borelapp. Likely from burel (“a coarse woollen cloth”) + lap (“flap of a garment”), where the first element is from Middle English burel, borel. Others feel that "its character and time of appearance makes a Dutch origin very likely" (and the earliest references as to its importation from the Netherlands); the NED suggests derivation from Dutch boenlap (“coarse, rubbing linen or cloth”) with the first element perhaps confused with boer (“farmer, peasant”). Bense similarly suggests derivation from an unattested Dutch *boerenlap, where boeren would be used in the sense of “coarse” as in boerenkost (“coarse, heavy food as is eaten by farmers”) or boerenpraat (“coarse, rural speech”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- bburlap
- brulap
- bulrap
- buralp
- burlapp
- burllap
- burlpa
- burrlap
- ubrlap
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of burlap - 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
How do you spell "burlap"?
What does "burlap" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "burlap"?
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Using “burlap”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-U-R-L-A-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbɝlæp/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “burp” - see the side-by-side comparison. burlap vs burp
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Same frequency band
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.