kibosh
/ˈkaɪˌbɒʃ/
"kibosh" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kibosh” is uncommon English (frequency #90,622 among 9,255 “K” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #90,622
- frequency rank, English
- 9,255
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Chiefly in put on the kibosh or put the kibosh on: something which checks or restrains.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kibosh |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkaɪˌbɒʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #90,622 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kibosh” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
kibosh is uncommon English at frequency #90,622 among 9,255 “K” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkaɪˌbɒʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Chiefly in put on the kibosh or put the kibosh on: something which checks or restrains.".
kibosh has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: The origin of the noun is uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested: * According to Gerald Leonard Cohen, Stephen Goranson, and Matthew Little, at present the most likely derivation is as a non-rhotic variant of kurbash (“heavy whip, lash”), … The correct English form is kibosh, spelled K-I-B-O-S-H.
Definition
- 1Chiefly in put on the kibosh or put the kibosh on: something which checks or restrains.
Etymology
The origin of the noun is uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested: * According to Gerald Leonard Cohen, Stephen Goranson, and Matthew Little, at present the most likely derivation is as a non-rhotic variant of kurbash (“heavy whip, lash”), from Arabic كُرْبَاج (kurbāj, “lash, whip”), or from its etymon Ottoman Turkish قرباچ (kırbaç, “lash, whip”) (whence Turkish kırbaç (“whip”)). * From Irish caidhp bháis (literally “death cap”), said to denote, among other things, the black cap worn by English judges when pronouncing the death sentence, the hood put on a person before they were put to death by hanging, or a form of torture called pitchcapping. However, there appears to be no convincing evidence that the term was used in these senses. * From a Yiddish word (compare Hebrew כָּבַשׁ (kavásh, “to conquer, subjugate”)); however, no such word has been found. * From Middle English cabochen (“to cut off (the head, chiefly of a deer), behead”), from Middle French cabocher (“to cut off (the head)”), from caboche (“the head”) (Northern France, informal) (whence Middle English caboche (“head of cabbage”)), from Italian capocchia (“the head”) (derogatory), ultimately from Latin caput (“the head”). The Middle English word is said to have been adopted in Cockney slang; however, how this is supposed to have happened remains unexplained * A clogmakers’ term kibosh (“iron bar about a foot long that, when hot, is used to soften and smooth leather”). The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
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
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Using “kibosh”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-I-B-O-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkaɪˌbɒʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this 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.