funny bone
/ˈfʌn.i boʊn/
"funny-bone" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“funny bone” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The ulnar nerve in the elbow, which, when hit, causes a tingling sensation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-funny-bone · funny bone · English
funny bone · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | funny bone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfʌn.i boʊn/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “funny bone” in English
Rare enough to double-check
funny bone is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfʌn.i boʊn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
funny bone has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is funny bone, spelled F-U-N-N-Y- -B-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1The ulnar nerve in the elbow, which, when hit, causes a tingling sensation.
- 2Nickname for the humerus, so named because of its being homophonic with "humorous".
- 3One's sense of humor.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how funny bone appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ouch, I just hit my funny bone.
His wisecracks always tickle my funny bone.
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.