motorman

noun

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

The verdict

“motorman” is uncommon English (frequency #96,254 among 36,575 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#96,254
frequency rank, English
36,575
“M” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A man who controls a motor.

Key facts for motorman
PropertyValue
Headwordmotorman
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#96,254
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “motorman” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). motorman lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

motorman is uncommon English at frequency #96,254 among 36,575 “M” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for motorman, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From motor + -man. The correct English form is motorman, spelled M-O-T-O-R-M-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    A man who controls a motor.
  2. 2
    A person who operates a motor vehicle.
  3. 3
    A train driver.
  4. 4
    An electric train or tram driver.

Etymology

From motor + -man.

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

How do you spell "motorman"?
"motorman" is spelled M-O-T-O-R-M-A-N.
What does "motorman" mean?
As a noun, "motorman" means: A man who controls a motor.
What is the origin of the word "motorman"?
From motor + -man. 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.

Using “motorman”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is M-O-T-O-R-M-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list