bustard
/ˈbʌs.təd/
"bustard" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bustard” is uncommon English (frequency #97,899 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,899
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bustard · bustard · English
bustard · rank #97,899 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #97,899
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH Busselton
Nearest frequency peer: Busselton (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “bustard”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Burchill
Burchill
2,107 corpus weight
- busload
busload
2,104 corpus weight
- Busselton
Busselton
2,103 corpus weight
- bustard
bustard
2,102 corpus weight
- bwana
bwana
2,101 corpus weight
- Byford
Byford
2,099 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “bustard” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “bustard” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bustard is uncommon English at frequency #97,899 among 4,121 “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
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how bustard appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
That bustard tried to conquer the world!
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bustard", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).