honeycomb
/ˈhʌnikəʊm/
Detailed reference entry for the English word "honeycomb", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "honeycomb" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "honeycomb" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
The verdict
“honeycomb” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #31,203 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #31,203
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A substance made by bees (clade Anthophila) primarily from beeswax which has hexagonal cells to hold their larvae, and for storing pollen and honey to feed the larvae and themselves when other food...
Compare similar words
See how honeycomb compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | honeycomb |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhʌnikəʊm/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #31,203 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “honeycomb” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for honeycomb is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhʌnikəʊm/. Corpus data places it at rank #31,203 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for honeycomb, with forms such as "hhoneycomb", "hnoeycomb", and "hoenycomb". 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 is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English hony comb, from Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (“honey”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks (“honey”)) + camb (“comb”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“peg; tooth; row of teeth”)). The E… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is honeycomb, spelled H-O-N-E-Y-C-O-M-B, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A substance made by bees (clade Anthophila) primarily from beeswax which has hexagonal cells to hold their larvae, and for storing pollen and honey to feed the larvae and themselves when other food is scarce; it is also eaten by humans as part of comb-honey; (countable) a single sheet made up of two layers of this substance.
- 2Something resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.
- 3Something resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.
- 4Something resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.
- 5Something resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.
- 6Something resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.
- 7Something resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.
- 8Something resembling honeycomb (noun sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.
- 9Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.
- 10Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.
- 11Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English hony comb, from Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (“honey”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks (“honey”)) + camb (“comb”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“peg; tooth; row of teeth”)). The English word is analysable as honey + comb. The Oxford English Dictionary posits that the arrangement of several plates of wax “hanging parallel to each other from the roof of the hive suggests a comb with its teeth”. The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hhoneycomb,hnoeycomb,hoenycomb,honecyomb,honeyccomb,honeycmob,honeycobm,honeycombb,honeycommb,honeyocmb,honeyycomb,honneycomb,honyecomb,ohneycomb
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of honeycomb - 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.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “honeycomb, English word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/en/word/honeycomb
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “honeycomb”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-N-E-Y-C-O-M-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhʌnikəʊm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index: