housebreaking

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"housebreaking" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“housebreaking” is uncommon English (frequency #93,799 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#93,799
frequency rank, English
2,646
“H” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of breaking into another person's house with unlawful intent.

Corpus desk

Index EN-housebreaking · housebreaking · English

housebreaking · rank #93,799 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #93,799
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,646
  • PHOTO-FINISH houseful

Nearest frequency peer: houseful (+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 “housebreaking”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “housebreaking” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for housebreaking
PropertyValue
Headwordhousebreaking
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Frequency rank#93,799
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “housebreaking” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).housebreakingfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “houseful” (#93,800), “howsoever” (#93,801), “hoose” (#93,796). Among 2,646 “H” headwords, “housebreaking” is #93,799. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

housebreaking is uncommon English at frequency #93,799 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The act of breaking into another person's house with unlawful intent.".

housebreaking doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From house + breaking. The correct English form is housebreaking, spelled H-O-U-S-E-B-R-E-A-K-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act of breaking into another person's house with unlawful intent.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how housebreaking appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Near-synonym: breaking and entering
  2. The accused was charged with housebreaking and theft.

Etymology

From house + breaking.

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

How do you spell "housebreaking"?
"housebreaking" is spelled H-O-U-S-E-B-R-E-A-K-I-N-G.
What does "housebreaking" mean?
As a noun, "housebreaking" means: The act of breaking into another person's house with unlawful intent.
What is the origin of the word "housebreaking"?
From house + breaking. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "housebreaking", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

electrophilic#93,654decontaminate#93,606counterstrike#93,579carbamazepine#93,520

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list