handwashing
"handwashing" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“handwashing” is uncommon English (frequency #83,316 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #83,316
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The washing of one's hands.
Corpus desk
Index EN-handwashing · handwashing · English
handwashing · rank #83,316 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #83,316
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH handprint
Nearest frequency peer: handprint (-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 “handwashing”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- GVA
GVA
16,692 corpus weight
- haberdashery
haberdashery
16,690 corpus weight
- Hadleigh
Hadleigh
16,689 corpus weight
- handprint
handprint
16,686 corpus weight
- handwashing
handwashing
16,685 corpus weight
- handwork
handwork
16,684 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “handwashing” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | handwashing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #83,316 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “handwashing” in English
Rare enough to double-check
handwashing is uncommon English at frequency #83,316 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The washing of one's hands.".
No misspelling variants are generated for handwashing in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. 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: From hand + washing. The correct English form is handwashing, spelled H-A-N-D-W-A-S-H-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The washing of one's hands.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how handwashing appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The mirror comes alive with images, guiding you through the steps of handwashing: turn on the taps, lather your hands with soap, rinse your hands, turn off the taps, dry your hands.
The benefits of increased hygiene as a result of Covid-19 could stretch even further ahead. Most schools are insisting on regular hand washing, and are encouraging children to rub soap into their hands for 20 seconds or more, before rinsing it off.
Etymology
From hand + washing.
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 "handwashing", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).