grebe
/ɡɹiːb/
"grebe" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“grebe” is uncommon English (frequency #74,134 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #74,134
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of several waterbirds in the family Podicipedidae of the order Podicipediformes. They have strong, sharp bills, and lobate toes.
Corpus desk
Index EN-grebe · grebe · English
grebe · rank #74,134 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #74,134
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH graviton
Nearest frequency peer: graviton (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “grebe”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- gouges
gouges
25,871 corpus weight
- graveside
graveside
25,869 corpus weight
- graviton
graviton
25,868 corpus weight
- grebe
grebe
25,867 corpus weight
- grigio
grigio
25,864 corpus weight
- grimacing
grimacing
25,863 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “grebe” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | grebe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɡɹiːb/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #74,134 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “grebe” in English
Rare enough to double-check
grebe is uncommon English at frequency #74,134 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɡɹiːb/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of several waterbirds in the family Podicipedidae of the order Podicipediformes. They have strong, sharp bills, and lobate toes.".
grebe doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French grèbe. The correct English form is grebe, spelled G-R-E-B-E.
Definition
- 1Any of several waterbirds in the family Podicipedidae of the order Podicipediformes. They have strong, sharp bills, and lobate toes.
Etymology
From French grèbe.
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); 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "grebe", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).