paintbrush
/ˈpeɪntˌbɹʌʃ/
"paintbrush" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“paintbrush” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #46,100 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #46,100
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A thin brush for applying paint.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | paintbrush |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpeɪntˌbɹʌʃ/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #46,100 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “paintbrush” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for paintbrush is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpeɪntˌbɹʌʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #46,100 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A thin brush for applying paint.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for paintbrush, with forms such as "apintbrush", "painbtrush", and "painntbrush". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From paint + brush. The correct English form is paintbrush, spelled P-A-I-N-T-B-R-U-S-H.
Definition
- 1A thin brush for applying paint.
Etymology
From paint + brush.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apintbrush,painbtrush,painntbrush,paintbbrush,paintbrrush,paintbrsuh,paintbruhs,paintbrushh,paintbrussh,paintbursh,paintrbush,painttbrush,paitnbrush,panitbrush,piantbrush,ppaintbrush
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of paintbrush - 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
How do you spell "paintbrush"?
What does "paintbrush" mean?
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Using “paintbrush”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-I-N-T-B-R-U-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpeɪntˌbɹʌʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.