hobbit
/ˈhɒbɪt/
"hobbit" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hobbit” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #17,383. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #17,383
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet.
Corpus desk
Index EN-hobbit · hobbit · English
hobbit · rank #17,383 · 7 variants · 6 confusables
- FREQ-MID #17,383
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH hinder
Nearest frequency peer: hinder (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “hobbit”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- heterosexual
heterosexual
82,621 corpus weight
- Hewitt
Hewitt
82,620 corpus weight
- hinder
hinder
82,619 corpus weight
- hobbit
hobbit
82,618 corpus weight
- horseback
horseback
82,617 corpus weight
- hospice
hospice
82,616 corpus weight
What this shows “hobbit” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hobbit |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhɒbɪt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #17,383 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “hobbit”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around hobbit (IPA /ˈhɒbɪt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #17,383 among 2,646 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for hobbit, with forms such as "hbobit", "hhobbit", and "hobbitt". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "hobby", "Hobbs", "hobbyist", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Coined in its current sense by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s, featured in the novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jocularly etymologized by him as from a hypothetical Old English *holbytla (literally “hole-builder”), from hol (“hole”) + bytlan (“to… The correct English form is hobbit, spelled H-O-B-B-I-T.
Definition
- 1A member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet.
- 2A member of a fictional race of small humanoids with shaggy hair and hairy feet.
- 3An extinct species of hominin, Homo floresiensis, with a short body and relatively small brain, fossils of which have been recovered from the Indonesian island of Flores.
- 4A socially unappealing, overly academic student.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how hobbit appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It was his thirty-third birthday and already he had […] a little round tummy like a hobbit
Although partial remains of other Hobbits have surfaced at the same site, they say it could have been an isolated colony of inbred people who shared the same genetic abnormalities.
Etymology
Coined in its current sense by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s, featured in the novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Jocularly etymologized by him as from a hypothetical Old English *holbytla (literally “hole-builder”), from hol (“hole”) + bytlan (“to build”) + -a (“-er”). Tolkien was possibly influenced by similar terms for house-sprites (probably from Hob, a hypocoristic form of Robert), or an isolated mention of hobbits (with hobgoblins following immediately afterwards) in a list of sprites and bogies from the 19th-century Denham Tracts.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hbobit
- hhobbit
- hobbitt
- hobbti
- hobibt
- hobit
- ohbbit
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hobbit - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "hobbit", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).