hairball
"hairball" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hairball” is uncommon English (frequency #87,349 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,349
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A trichobezoar; a small wad of fur or mass of hair formed in the digestive system of a cat or other animal, from hair ingested while grooming.
Corpus desk
Index EN-hairball · hairball · English
hairball · rank #87,349 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,349
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 23,837
- PHOTO-FINISH gyal
Nearest frequency peer: gyal (-3 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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “hairball”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- gusset
gusset
12,658 corpus weight
- GWR
GWR
12,656 corpus weight
- gyal
gyal
12,655 corpus weight
- hairball
hairball
12,652 corpus weight
- harangue
harangue
12,649 corpus weight
- harking
harking
12,646 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “hairball” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hairball |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #87,349 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hairball” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
hairball is uncommon English at frequency #87,349 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
hairball doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From hair + ball. The correct English form is hairball, spelled H-A-I-R-B-A-L-L.
Definition
- 1A trichobezoar; a small wad of fur or mass of hair formed in the digestive system of a cat or other animal, from hair ingested while grooming.
- 2A messy, tangled, intractable issue.
Etymology
From hair + ball.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hairball", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.