lubber
/ˈlʌbə(ɹ)/
"lubber" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lubber” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A clumsy or lazy person.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lubber · lubber · English
lubber · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lubber |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlʌbə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “lubber” in English
Rare enough to double-check
lubber is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈlʌbə(ɹ)/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for lubber, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English, perhaps from Old French lobeor (“swindler”), or of Scandinavian origin, compare dialectal Swedish lubber. The grasshopper was likely so called after sense 1 (“a clumsy or lazy person”). The correct English form is lubber, spelled L-U-B-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1A clumsy or lazy person.
- 2An inexperienced or novice sailor; a landlubber.
- 3An eastern lubber grasshopper (Romalea microptera).
- 4Alteration of rubber.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how lubber appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[T]hree of the boys, of whom Mr. Hector was sometimes one, used to come in the morning as his humble attendants, and carry him [Johnson] to school. […] The purfly, sand-blind lubber and blubber, with his open mouth, and face of bruised honeycomb; yet already dominant, imperial, irresistible!
Etymology
From Middle English, perhaps from Old French lobeor (“swindler”), or of Scandinavian origin, compare dialectal Swedish lubber. The grasshopper was likely so called after sense 1 (“a clumsy or lazy person”).
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.