coast guard

noun

"coast-guard" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“coast guard” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The organisation or officer enforcing maritime law and policing the seas within territorial waters.

Corpus desk

Index EN-coast-guard · coast guard · English

coast guard · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "C" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for coast guard
PropertyValue
Headwordcoast guard
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “coast guard” in English

coast guardfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

coast guard is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The organisation or officer enforcing maritime law and policing the seas within territorial waters.".

No misspelling variants are generated for coast guard in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From coast + guard. Compare Old English sǣweard (“coastguard”, literally “sea-guard”). The correct English form is coast guard, spelled C-O-A-S-T- -G-U-A-R-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    The organisation or officer enforcing maritime law and policing the seas within territorial waters.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how coast guard appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I went down to the coast guard to see what they're guarding / "See what the sign says, you idiot, we're guarding the coast"

Etymology

From coast + guard. Compare Old English sǣweard (“coastguard”, literally “sea-guard”).

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

How do you spell "coast guard"?
"coast guard" is spelled C-O-A-S-T- -G-U-A-R-D.
What does "coast guard" mean?
As a noun, "coast guard" means: The organisation or officer enforcing maritime law and policing the seas within territorial waters.
What is the origin of the word "coast guard"?
From coast + guard. Compare Old English sǣweard (“coastguard”, literally “sea-guard”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list