gunsmoke

noun

"gunsmoke" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“gunsmoke” is uncommon English (frequency #97,084 among 2,313 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#97,084
frequency rank, English
2,313
“G” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Smoke produced by the firing of a gun.

Corpus desk

Index EN-gunsmoke · gunsmoke · English

gunsmoke · rank #97,084 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #97,084
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,313
  • PHOTO-FINISH gulfs

Nearest frequency peer: gulfs (-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 “gunsmoke”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “gunsmoke” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for gunsmoke
PropertyValue
Headwordgunsmoke
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#97,084
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “gunsmoke” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).gunsmokefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “gulfs” (#97,083), “guarana” (#97,082), “Hagley” (#97,086). Among 2,313 “G” headwords, “gunsmoke” is #97,084. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

gunsmoke is uncommon English at frequency #97,084 among 2,313 “G” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Smoke produced by the firing of a gun.".

gunsmoke doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Etymologically, the entry records: From gun + smoke. The correct English form is gunsmoke, spelled G-U-N-S-M-O-K-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Smoke produced by the firing of a gun.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. You can almost smell the horses, the high chapparal ^([sic]), the gunsmoke.
  2. A cloud of gunsmoke, well over a mile distant, indicated the presence of a battery of the huge cannons. After the wind blew the cloud away, he could spot the actual guns themselves.

Etymology

From gun + smoke.

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

How do you spell "gunsmoke"?
"gunsmoke" is spelled G-U-N-S-M-O-K-E.
What does "gunsmoke" mean?
As a noun, "gunsmoke" means: Smoke produced by the firing of a gun.
What is the origin of the word "gunsmoke"?
From gun + smoke. 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "gunsmoke", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list