humbug
/ˈhʌmbʌɡ/
"humbug" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“humbug” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #47,106. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #47,106
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A hoax, jest, or prank.
Corpus desk
Index EN-humbug · humbug · English
humbug · rank #47,106 · 9 variants · 6 confusables
- FREQ-MID #47,106
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH hued
Nearest frequency peer: hued (-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 “humbug”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- HMAS
HMAS
52,902 corpus weight
- Hsi
Hsi
52,897 corpus weight
- hued
hued
52,896 corpus weight
- humbug
humbug
52,895 corpus weight
- hydrological
hydrological
52,894 corpus weight
- IME
IME
52,889 corpus weight
What this shows “humbug” 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 | humbug |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhʌmbʌɡ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #47,106 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “humbug”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around humbug (IPA /ˈhʌmbʌɡ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #47,106 among 2,646 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for humbug, with forms such as "hhumbug", "hmubug", and "hubmug". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "humour", "hummus", "humble", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Origin unknown; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention”. It has been suggested that the word possibly derives from hummer (“(slang) … The correct English form is humbug, spelled H-U-M-B-U-G.
Definition
- 1A hoax, jest, or prank.
- 2A fraud or sham; (uncountable) hypocrisy.
- 3A cheat, fraudster, or hypocrite.
- 4Nonsense.
- 5A type of hard sweet (candy), usually peppermint flavoured with a striped pattern.
- 6Anything complicated, offensive, troublesome, unpleasant or worrying; a misunderstanding, especially if trivial.
- 7A fight.
- 8A gang.
- 9A false arrest on trumped-up charges.
- 10The piglet of the wild boar.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how humbug appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The universal jester: or, a pocket companion for the wits. Being a choice collection of merry conceits, facetious Drolleries, humorous Waggeries, smart Repartees, pleasant Jokes, Clenchers, Closures, Bon Mots, and Humbugs; comic Stories, notable Puns, witty Quibbles, and ridiculous Bulls. To which are added, Mr. Puzzlewit's gimcracks ; or, A long String o…
The profeſſor of the modern Humbugg, for ſuch is the polite name of this qualification, muſt either have from nature an unalterable countenance, or from art a power of commanding all its ſucceſſive variations, and preſerving it inviolably in each, as long as the present ſituation of the caſe renders it neceſſary: he muſt have a head full of imagination, a…
Etymology
Origin unknown; the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that “the facts as to its origin appear to have been lost, even before the word became common enough to excite attention”. It has been suggested that the word possibly derives from hummer (“(slang) An obvious lie”), or from hum (“(dialectal and slang) to cajole; delude; impose on”) + bug (“a goblin, a spectre”). In his Slang Dictionary (1864), English bibliophile and publisher John Camden Hotten (1832–1873) suggested a link to the name of the German city of Hamburg, “from which town so many false bulletins and reports came during the war in the last century”, or alternatively a derivation from ambage. Hotten also said he had traced the earliest occurrence of the word to the title page of Ferdinando Killigrew’s book The Universal Jester (see quotations), which he dated to about 1735–1740. This dating has therefore been adopted by other dictionaries. However, the OED dates the word to about 1750, as the earliest edition of Killigrew’s work has been dated to 1754.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hhumbug
- hmubug
- hubmug
- humbbug
- humbgu
- humbugg
- hummbug
- humubg
- uhmbug
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of humbug - 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
How do you spell "humbug"?
What does "humbug" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "humbug"?
How do you pronounce "humbug"?
What is the origin of the word "humbug"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "humbug", 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 (9 here; floor ≥5).