bustard
/ˈbʌs.təd/
"bustard" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bustard” is uncommon English (frequency #97,899 among 31,241 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,899
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of several large terrestrial birds of the family Otididae in the order Otidiformes that inhabit dry open country and steppes in the Old World.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bustard |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈbʌs.təd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #97,899 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bustard” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
bustard is uncommon English at frequency #97,899 among 31,241 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈbʌs.təd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
bustard doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bustarde, from an Anglo-Norman blend of Old French bistarde and oustarde, both from Latin avis tarda (“slow bird”), which is a misnomer as bustards are fast runners. The correct English form is bustard, spelled B-U-S-T-A-R-D.
Definition
- 1Any of several large terrestrial birds of the family Otididae in the order Otidiformes that inhabit dry open country and steppes in the Old World.
- 2bastard
Etymology
From Middle English bustarde, from an Anglo-Norman blend of Old French bistarde and oustarde, both from Latin avis tarda (“slow bird”), which is a misnomer as bustards are fast runners.
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 “bustard”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-U-S-T-A-R-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈbʌs.təd/ (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.