busboy
/ˈbʌsˌbɔɪ/
"busboy" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“busboy” is uncommon English (frequency #91,324 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #91,324
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An assistant waiter; one who clears plates from and cleans tables.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | busboy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbʌsˌbɔɪ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #91,324 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “busboy” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
busboy is uncommon English at frequency #91,324 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbʌsˌbɔɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An assistant waiter; one who clears plates from and cleans tables.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for busboy, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Clipping of omnibus (“assistant waiter”) + boy. The correct English form is busboy, spelled B-U-S-B-O-Y.
Definition
- 1An assistant waiter; one who clears plates from and cleans tables.
Etymology
Clipping of omnibus (“assistant waiter”) + boy.
This word in other languages
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 “busboy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-U-S-B-O-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbʌsˌbɔɪ/ (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.