longship

noun

"longship" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“longship” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A type of naval vessel made by the Vikings.

Corpus desk

Index EN-longship · longship · English

longship · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-2 2 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.

Key facts for longship
PropertyValue
Headwordlongship
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “longship” in English

longshipfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

longship is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A type of naval vessel made by the Vikings.".

Zero misspellings are on record for longship in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English *langschip, from Old English langsċip (“a longship, a large warship”), equivalent to long + ship. Cognate with German Langschiff, German Low German Langschipp, Icelandic langskip, Norwegian Bokmål langskip, Norwegian Nynorsk la… The correct English form is longship, spelled L-O-N-G-S-H-I-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    A type of naval vessel made by the Vikings.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English *langschip, from Old English langsċip (“a longship, a large warship”), equivalent to long + ship. Cognate with German Langschiff, German Low German Langschipp, Icelandic langskip, Norwegian Bokmål langskip, Norwegian Nynorsk langskip, Dutch langschip.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "longship"?
"longship" is spelled L-O-N-G-S-H-I-P.
What does "longship" mean?
As a noun, "longship" means: A type of naval vessel made by the Vikings.
What is the origin of the word "longship"?
Inherited from Middle English *langschip, from Old English langsċip (“a longship, a large warship”), equivalent to long + ship. Cognate with German Langschiff, German Low German Langschipp, Icelandic langskip, Norwegian Bokmål langskip, Norwegian ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list