overfishing
"overfishing" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“overfishing” is uncommon English (frequency #50,133 among 15,494 “O” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,133
- frequency rank, English
- 15,494
- “O” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Fishing that reduces the stock of remaining fish in an area to below that which is acceptable.
Corpus desk
Index EN-overfishing · overfishing · English
overfishing · rank #50,133 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,133
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 15,494
- PHOTO-FINISH outmoded
Nearest frequency peer: outmoded (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “overfishing”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- oper
oper
49,873 corpus weight
- oughta
oughta
49,871 corpus weight
- outmoded
outmoded
49,869 corpus weight
- overfishing
overfishing
49,868 corpus weight
- paddled
paddled
49,864 corpus weight
- paneled
paneled
49,863 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “overfishing” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | overfishing |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #50,133 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “overfishing” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
overfishing is uncommon English at frequency #50,133 among 15,494 “O” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Fishing that reduces the stock of remaining fish in an area to below that which is acceptable.".
overfishing has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is overfishing, spelled O-V-E-R-F-I-S-H-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Fishing that reduces the stock of remaining fish in an area to below that which is acceptable.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how overfishing appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Most of the overfishings in the international sense are a product of misuse.
The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in…
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "overfishing", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency 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.