by a hair's breadth
"by-a-hair-s-breadth" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“by a hair's breadth” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a prep_phrase - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 19
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - By a narrow margin.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | by a hair's breadth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “by a hair's breadth” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for by a hair's breadth is 19 letters long, classified as a prep_phrase. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "By a narrow margin.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for by a hair's breadth, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: See hair's breadth. The correct English form is by a hair's breadth, spelled B-Y- -A- -H-A-I-R-'-S- -B-R-E-A-D-T-H.
Definition
- 1By a narrow margin.
Etymology
See hair's breadth.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “by a hair's breadth”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-Y- -A- -H-A-I-R-'-S- -B-R-E-A-D-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.