great northern diver

noun

"great-northern-diver" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“great northern diver” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
20
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large member of the diver family, Gavia immer, commonly breeding in North America, where it is known as the as common loon.

Corpus desk

Index EN-great-northern-diver · great northern diver · English

great northern diver · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 20 letters
  • VOW-6 6 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.

Key facts for great northern diver
PropertyValue
Headwordgreat northern diver
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters20
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “great northern diver” in English

great northern diverranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

great northern diver is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A large member of the diver family, Gavia immer, commonly breeding in North America, where it is known as the as common loon.".

Zero misspellings are on record for great northern diver in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From the fact that the species is a diver, the largest or greatest of those regularly found off the British Isles, which has a very northerly range (no further south than the British Isles). The correct English form is great northern diver, spelled G-R-E-A-T- -N-O-R-T-H-E-R-N- -D-I-V-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    A large member of the diver family, Gavia immer, commonly breeding in North America, where it is known as the as common loon.

Etymology

From the fact that the species is a diver, the largest or greatest of those regularly found off the British Isles, which has a very northerly range (no further south than the British Isles).

Synonyms

common loongreat northern loon

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "great northern diver"?
"great northern diver" is spelled G-R-E-A-T- -N-O-R-T-H-E-R-N- -D-I-V-E-R.
What does "great northern diver" mean?
As a noun, "great northern diver" means: A large member of the diver family, Gavia immer, commonly breeding in North America, where it is known as the as common loon.
What is the origin of the word "great northern diver"?
From the fact that the species is a diver, the largest or greatest of those regularly found off the British Isles, which has a very northerly range (no further south than the British Isles). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list