CBC

name

"cbc" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“CBC” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,121 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.

#15,121
frequency rank, English
3
letters
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Initialism of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

CBC vs co
0% similar
CBC vs CD
33% similar
CBC vs CM
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for CBC
PropertyValue
HeadwordCBC
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters3
Frequency rank#15,121
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “CBC” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). CBC lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for CBC is 3 letters long, classified as a proper noun. Corpus data places it at rank #15,121 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for CBC, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "co", "CD", "CM", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is CBC, spelled C-B-C.

Definition

  1. 1
    Initialism of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
  2. 2
    Initialism of Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting Company.
  3. 3
    Initialism of Congressional Black Caucus.

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 "CBC"?
"CBC" is spelled C-B-C.
What does "CBC" mean?
As a proper noun, "CBC" means: Initialism of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
What words are commonly confused with "CBC"?
"CBC" is commonly confused with "co", "CD", "CM". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "CBC" come from?
"CBC" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “CBC”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is C-B-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Don't mix it up with “co” - see the side-by-side comparison. CBC vs co
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list