great skua

noun

"great-skua" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“great skua” 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) - A large seabird, Stercorarius skua.

Corpus desk

Index EN-great-skua · great skua · English

great skua · 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 "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 skua
PropertyValue
Headwordgreat skua
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “great skua” in English

great skuasits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

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

Rare enough to double-check

great skua is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A large seabird, Stercorarius skua.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for great skua, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is great skua, spelled G-R-E-A-T- -S-K-U-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    A large seabird, Stercorarius skua.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how great skua appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. There are great skuas here, nesting up on the higher ground, and I have seen them cruising above the gull colony further up the coast.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "great skua"?
"great skua" is spelled G-R-E-A-T- -S-K-U-A.
What does "great skua" mean?
As a noun, "great skua" means: A large seabird, Stercorarius skua.
What language does "great skua" come from?
"great skua" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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