ISBN
noun
ISBN is spelled I-S-B-N: 4 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,070th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ISBN means “Initialism of International Standard Book Number” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ISBN is ISBNs.
How many letters and syllables are in ISBN?
| Letters | 4: I-S-B-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 25,070th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is ISBN?
ISBN appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,070th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ISBN?
- Canada
ISBN has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-PerfectSoundWhatever-ISBN.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ISBN
- ISBNs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ISBN mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Initialism of International Standard Book Number.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
ISBN in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense International Standard Book Number:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | Numéro international normalisé du livre (NINL) |
| German | Internationale Standardbuchnummer |
| Portuguese | Número Padrão Internacional de Livro |
| Spanish | Número Estándar Internacional de Libros, Número Internacional Normalizado del Libro |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.