guffaw
/ɡəˈfɔː/
"guffaw" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“guffaw” is uncommon English (frequency #93,764 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #93,764
- frequency rank, English
- 2,313
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A boisterous laugh.
Corpus desk
Index EN-guffaw · guffaw · English
guffaw · rank #93,764 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #93,764
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,313
- PHOTO-FINISH gummed
Nearest frequency peer: gummed (+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 “guffaw”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Greengrass
Greengrass
6,244 corpus weight
- grotty
grotty
6,241 corpus weight
- guffaw
guffaw
6,237 corpus weight
- gummed
gummed
6,236 corpus weight
- Gundersen
Gundersen
6,235 corpus weight
- guzzler
guzzler
6,232 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “guffaw” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | guffaw |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɡəˈfɔː/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #93,764 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “guffaw” in English
Rare enough to double-check
guffaw is uncommon English at frequency #93,764 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ɡəˈfɔː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A boisterous laugh.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for guffaw, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Early 18th century, originally Scots, probably onomatopoeic. The correct English form is guffaw, spelled G-U-F-F-A-W.
Definition
- 1A boisterous laugh.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how guffaw appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
On opening the little door, two hairy monsters flew at my throat, bearing me down, and extinguishing the light; while a mingled guffaw from Heathcliff and Hareton put the copestone on my rage and humiliation.
He walked to the edge and they heard his hoarse guffaw of laughter as the arrows clanged and clattered against his impenetrable mail.
Etymology
Early 18th century, originally Scots, probably onomatopoeic.
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 "guffaw", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).