like a bat out of hell
"like-a-bat-out-of-hell" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“like a bat out of hell” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 22
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - With crazy or excessive intensity or speed.
Corpus desk
Index EN-like-a-bat-out-of-hell · like a bat out of hell · English
like a bat out of hell · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 22 letters
- VOW-8 8 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "L" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | like a bat out of hell |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “like a bat out of hell” in English
Rare enough to double-check
like a bat out of hell is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "With crazy or excessive intensity or speed.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for like a bat out of hell, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology 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 like a bat out of hell, spelled L-I-K-E- -A- -B-A-T- -O-U-T- -O-F- -H-E-L-L.
Definition
- 1With crazy or excessive intensity or speed.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how like a bat out of hell appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He came tearing around the corner like a bat out of hell and nearly ran us over.
Appellee testified that "the train came through like a bat out of hell," and while this language is probably highly figurative, it nevertheless might tend to indicate that the train was running at a very high speed.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.