horsehair
"horsehair" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“horsehair” is uncommon English (frequency #80,540 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #80,540
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The hair of a horse, especially from the mane and tail, used for upholstery.
Corpus desk
Index EN-horsehair · horsehair · English
horsehair · rank #80,540 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #80,540
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 23,837
- PHOTO-FINISH Hornsey
Nearest frequency peer: Hornsey (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “horsehair”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- homebody
homebody
19,466 corpus weight
- homeostatic
homeostatic
19,464 corpus weight
- Hornsey
Hornsey
19,462 corpus weight
- horsehair
horsehair
19,461 corpus weight
- Howitt
Howitt
19,460 corpus weight
- Hsia
Hsia
19,459 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “horsehair” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | horsehair |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #80,540 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “horsehair” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
horsehair is uncommon English at frequency #80,540 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for horsehair in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hors her, horshere, hors-here, hors heer (also hors-hore), equivalent to horse + hair. Compare Old Norse hross-hár (“horsehair”). The correct English form is horsehair, spelled H-O-R-S-E-H-A-I-R.
Definition
- 1The hair of a horse, especially from the mane and tail, used for upholstery.
- 2A fabric made from this.
Etymology
From Middle English hors her, horshere, hors-here, hors heer (also hors-hore), equivalent to horse + hair. Compare Old Norse hross-hár (“horsehair”).
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 "horsehair", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 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.