floodgate
/ˈflʌdˌɡeɪt/
"floodgate" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“floodgate” is uncommon English (frequency #94,868 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #94,868
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An adjustable gate or valve used to control the flow of water through a sluice.
Corpus desk
Index EN-floodgate · floodgate · English
floodgate · rank #94,868 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #94,868
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH flitted
Nearest frequency peer: flitted (-2 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 “floodgate”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- flavorless
flavorless
5,138 corpus weight
- flexural
flexural
5,137 corpus weight
- flied
flied
5,136 corpus weight
- flitted
flitted
5,135 corpus weight
- floodgate
floodgate
5,133 corpus weight
- Fowey
Fowey
5,131 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “floodgate” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | floodgate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈflʌdˌɡeɪt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #94,868 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “floodgate” in English
Rare enough to double-check
floodgate is uncommon English at frequency #94,868 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈflʌdˌɡeɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for floodgate in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English flodegate, flodgate, flodeyate, floodȝate, flodȝete, equivalent to flood + gate. The correct English form is floodgate, spelled F-L-O-O-D-G-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1An adjustable gate or valve used to control the flow of water through a sluice.
- 2Anything that controls or limits an outpouring of people, emotion, etc.
- 3A stream that passes through a floodgate; a torrent.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how floodgate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
At the start of the Second World War floodgates would be installed at the ends of the under-Thames sections of the Bakerloo and Northern lines to save them from inundation should bombs damage the riverbed.
“The floodgates for advertising on cable are down,” says Michael Dann, a leading consultant on cable television.
Etymology
From Middle English flodegate, flodgate, flodeyate, floodȝate, flodȝete, equivalent to flood + gate.
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 "floodgate", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).