paintwork

noun

"paintwork" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“paintwork” is uncommon English (frequency #70,987 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,987
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The painted surface of a car, building, etc.

Corpus desk

Index EN-paintwork · paintwork · English

paintwork · rank #70,987 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,987
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH pagination

Nearest frequency peer: pagination (-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.

Long-tail ranks near “paintwork”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “paintwork” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for paintwork
PropertyValue
Headwordpaintwork
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#70,987
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “paintwork” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).paintworkfalls in this rarity band:

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

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “pagination” (#70,986), “pantries” (#70,989), “overqualified” (#70,983). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “paintwork” is #70,987. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

paintwork is uncommon English at frequency #70,987 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The painted surface of a car, building, etc.".

paintwork doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From paint + work. The correct English form is paintwork, spelled P-A-I-N-T-W-O-R-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    The painted surface of a car, building, etc.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. The interior colour scheme departs from the conventional L.T. red and green upholstery and matching paintwork, which has been replaced by a maroon and grey moquette with dove grey paint below the waist rail.
  2. At night, some nap on their stretchers. High up on a wall, stuck to peeling paintwork, are photographs of eight drivers killed in service.

Etymology

From paint + work.

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 "paintwork"?
"paintwork" is spelled P-A-I-N-T-W-O-R-K.
What does "paintwork" mean?
As a noun, "paintwork" means: The painted surface of a car, building, etc.
What is the origin of the word "paintwork"?
From paint + work. 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "paintwork", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list