grizzly bear

noun

"grizzly-bear" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A large North American subspecies, Ursus arctos horribilis, of the brown bear.

Key facts for grizzly bear
PropertyValue
Headwordgrizzly bear
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “grizzly bear” sits in English frequency

grizzly bear falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Rare enough to double-check

grizzly bear is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for grizzly bear in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is grizzly bear, spelled G-R-I-Z-Z-L-Y- -B-E-A-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    A large North American subspecies, Ursus arctos horribilis, of the brown bear.
  2. 2
    A dance of the early twentieth century in which dancers mimicked the movements of grizzly bears.

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 "grizzly bear"?
"grizzly bear" is spelled G-R-I-Z-Z-L-Y- -B-E-A-R.
What does "grizzly bear" mean?
As a noun, "grizzly bear" means: A large North American subspecies, Ursus arctos horribilis, of the brown bear.
What language does "grizzly bear" come from?
"grizzly bear" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Using “grizzly bear”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is G-R-I-Z-Z-L-Y- -B-E-A-R - 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list