kebab
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "kebab", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "kebab" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "kebab" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
kebab is aEnglishnoun. It means: A dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted on a skewer or spit, especially a doner kebab. Pronounced /kəˈbæb/. Often confused with kerb.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kebab |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəˈbæb/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #27,896 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for kebab is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈbæb/. Corpus data places it at rank #27,896 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for kebab, with forms such as "ekbab", "kbeab", and "keabb". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "kerb", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Arabic كَبَاب (kabāb), partly through Urdu, Persian and Turkish kebap. Doublet of cevapi. See the Arabic entry for more. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is kebab, spelled K-E-B-A-B, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A dish of pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables roasted on a skewer or spit, especially a doner kebab.
- 2A hand-held dish consisting of pieces of meat roasted on an upright skewer mixed with fresh vegetables and sauces and rolled up in a round piece of unleavened bread.
- 3A shish kebab or any other food on a skewer.
- 4A restaurant that sells kebabs
- 5The outward growing portions of a shish kebab structure.
- 6A Muslim, usually of southern European, Middle Eastern, or North African descent.
- 7The vulva.
- 8A menu icon of three vertical dots.
Etymology
From Arabic كَبَاب (kabāb), partly through Urdu, Persian and Turkish kebap. Doublet of cevapi. See the Arabic entry for more.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ekbab,kbeab,keabb,kebabb,kebba,kebbab,kkebab
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for kebab
Misspelling Variants of "kebab"
Frequency rank: #27,896 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter K in our English index: