Irish bull

noun

"irish-bull" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Irish bull” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A ludicrous, incongruent or logically absurd statement.

Corpus desk

Index EN-irish-bull · Irish bull · English

Irish bull · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "I" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for Irish bull
PropertyValue
HeadwordIrish bull
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Irish bull” in English

Irish bullfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Irish bull is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A ludicrous, incongruent or logically absurd statement.".

Irish bull has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is Irish bull, spelled I-R-I-S-H- -B-U-L-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    A ludicrous, incongruent or logically absurd statement.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Like the argot once confined to a class, some of his phrases have become part of the general idiom. A Dundrearyism can be recognized as soon as uttered, like an Irish bull.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Irish bull"?
"Irish bull" is spelled I-R-I-S-H- -B-U-L-L.
What does "Irish bull" mean?
As a noun, "Irish bull" means: A ludicrous, incongruent or logically absurd statement.
What language does "Irish bull" come from?
"Irish bull" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list