kerby
/kɝbi/
"kerby" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kerby” is uncommon English (frequency #98,315 among 9,255 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #98,315
- frequency rank, English
- 9,255
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A children's ball game played in the street, the aim being to throw the ball against the opposite kerb and catch it on the rebound.
Corpus desk
Index EN-kerby · kerby · English
kerby · rank #98,315 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #98,315
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 9,255
- PHOTO-FINISH Kentuckian
Nearest frequency peer: Kentuckian (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “kerby”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Kentuckian
Kentuckian
1,687 corpus weight
- kerby
kerby
1,686 corpus weight
- Keter
Keter
1,685 corpus weight
- Ketu
Ketu
1,684 corpus weight
- Khabarovsk
Khabarovsk
1,682 corpus weight
- khi
khi
1,680 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “kerby” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kerby |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɝbi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #98,315 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kerby” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
kerby is uncommon English at frequency #98,315 among 9,255 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /kɝbi/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A children's ball game played in the street, the aim being to throw the ball against the opposite kerb and catch it on the rebound.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for kerby, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From kerb + -y. The correct English form is kerby, spelled K-E-R-B-Y.
Definition
- 1A children's ball game played in the street, the aim being to throw the ball against the opposite kerb and catch it on the rebound.
Etymology
From kerb + -y.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "kerby", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.