man of war

noun

"man-of-war" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Alternative form of man-of-war.

Corpus desk

Index EN-man-of-war · man of war · English

man of war · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "M" 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 man of war
PropertyValue
Headwordman of war
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “man of war” in English

man of warfalls 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

man of war is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Alternative form of man-of-war.".

Zero misspellings are on record for man of war in our index, 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.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is man of war, spelled M-A-N- -O-F- -W-A-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Alternative form of man-of-war.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how man of war appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. [W]e cannot be ſecure, vvhile ſuch huge Fleets of Men of VVar, both Spaniſh, French, Dutch, and Dunkirkeers, ſome of them laden vvith Ammunition, Men, Arms, and Armies, do daily ſail on our Seas, and confront the Kings Chambers; […]
  2. But there is a Bird they call, a Man of vvar, and he is much bigger than a Heron, and flies out to Sea upon diſcoveries, (for they never light upon the Sea) to ſee vvhat ſhips are comming to the Iland; and vvhen they return the Ilanders look out, and ſay, A ſhip is comming, and finde it true.

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 "man of war"?
"man of war" is spelled M-A-N- -O-F- -W-A-R.
What does "man of war" mean?
As a noun, "man of war" means: Alternative form of man-of-war.
What language does "man of war" come from?
"man of war" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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