global warming
"global-warming" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“global warming” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sustained increase in the average temperature of the Earth, sufficient to cause climate change.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | global warming |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “global warming” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
global warming is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A sustained increase in the average temperature of the Earth, sufficient to cause climate change.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for global warming, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested in the 1950s. Came into common use in the mid-1970s with Wallace Smith Broecker's paper “Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” and Mikhail Budyko's statement in 1976 that “a global warming up has started”. The correct English form is global warming, spelled G-L-O-B-A-L- -W-A-R-M-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1A sustained increase in the average temperature of the Earth, sufficient to cause climate change.
Etymology
First attested in the 1950s. Came into common use in the mid-1970s with Wallace Smith Broecker's paper “Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” and Mikhail Budyko's statement in 1976 that “a global warming up has started”.
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.
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Using “global warming”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-L-O-B-A-L- -W-A-R-M-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.