gibbet
/ˈd͡ʒɪbɪt/
"gibbet" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gibbet” is uncommon English (frequency #94,894 among 18,276 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #94,894
- frequency rank, English
- 18,276
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An upright post with a crosspiece used for execution and subsequent public display.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gibbet |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈd͡ʒɪbɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #94,894 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gibbet” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
gibbet is uncommon English at frequency #94,894 among 18,276 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈd͡ʒɪbɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for gibbet in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English gibet, from Old French gibet (French gibet), either from Frankish *gibb (“forked stick”) or from Latin gibbus (“hunchbacked”). The correct English form is gibbet, spelled G-I-B-B-E-T.
Definition
- 1An upright post with a crosspiece used for execution and subsequent public display.
- 2The projecting arm of a crane, from which the load is suspended.
- 3A human-shaped structure made of iron bands designed to publicly display the corpse of an executed criminal.
Etymology
From Middle English gibet, from Old French gibet (French gibet), either from Frankish *gibb (“forked stick”) or from Latin gibbus (“hunchbacked”).
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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Using “gibbet”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-I-B-B-E-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈd͡ʒɪbɪt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.