Great Britain
"great-britain" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Great Britain” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large island (sometimes also including some of the surrounding smaller islands) off the north-west coast of Western Europe, made up of England, Scotland, and Wales.
Corpus desk
Index EN-great-britain · Great Britain · English
Great Britain · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" 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 | Great Britain |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Great Britain” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Great Britain is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for Great Britain in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Of the island of Great Britain, to disambiguate Britain from Brittany, i.e. Lesser Britain. From Middle English Great Brittaigne, Grete Britaigne, Grete breteygne, grete Bretayne, grete breteyne, paralleling Anglo-Norman Grande Brettayne and c. 12th-century… The correct English form is Great Britain, spelled G-R-E-A-T- -B-R-I-T-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1A large island (sometimes also including some of the surrounding smaller islands) off the north-west coast of Western Europe, made up of England, Scotland, and Wales.
- 2The United Kingdom, a kingdom and country in Northern Europe including the island of Great Britain as well as Northern Ireland on the northeastern portion of the island of Ireland.
- 3A former kingdom existing on the island of Great Britain from 1707 to 1801, consisting of England, Scotland and Wales; it was in personal union with the Kingdom of Ireland and later merged with it. Official name: Kingdom of Great Britain.
- 4England, Scotland and Wales in combination, to the exclusion of Northern Ireland.
- 5The United Kingdom national team (often inclusive of Northern Ireland).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Great Britain appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The manager of the London Cup hockey tournament must apologise for playing apartheid anthem "Die Stem" before South Africa's clash with Great Britain, SA Hockey Association chief executive Marissa Langeni said on Wednesday.
Great Britain apologizes to South Africa for playing apartheid anthem before field hockey game
Etymology
Of the island of Great Britain, to disambiguate Britain from Brittany, i.e. Lesser Britain. From Middle English Great Brittaigne, Grete Britaigne, Grete breteygne, grete Bretayne, grete breteyne, paralleling Anglo-Norman Grande Brettayne and c. 12th-century Medieval Latin Britannia Maior. Equivalent to Great + Britain. King James VI and I in 1604 proclaimed himself “King of Great Britain, France and Ireland”.
Synonyms
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.