lumber
/ˈlʌm.bə/
"lumber" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lumber” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,189 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,189
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lumber |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlʌm.bə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #13,189 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lumber” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lumber is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlʌm.bə/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,189 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for lumber, with forms such as "llumber", "lmuber", and "lubmer". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "lumen", "Luther", "luster", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Exact origin unknown. The earliest recorded reference for the noun was to heavy, useless objects such as old, discarded furniture. Perhaps from the verb lumber in reference to meaning "awkward to move"; Online Etymological Dictionary thinks this may derive … The correct English form is lumber, spelled L-U-M-B-E-R.
Definition
- 1Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.
- 2Old furniture or other items that take up room, or are stored away.
- 3Useless or cumbrous material.
- 4A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn.
- 5A baseball bat.
- 6An erect penis.
Etymology
Exact origin unknown. The earliest recorded reference for the noun was to heavy, useless objects such as old, discarded furniture. Perhaps from the verb lumber in reference to meaning "awkward to move"; Online Etymological Dictionary thinks this may derive from the same root as lame. Possibly influenced by Lumbar, an obsolete variant of Lombard, the Italian immigrant class known for being pawnbrokers and money-lenders in early England. Compare English lumpish.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: llumber,lmuber,lubmer,lumbber,lumberr,lumbre,lumebr,lummber,ulmber
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lumber - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “lumber”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-U-M-B-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlʌm.bə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “lumen” - see the side-by-side comparison. lumber vs lumen
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.