paperweight
"paperweight" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“paperweight” is uncommon English (frequency #63,870 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,870
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A small, decorative, somewhat weighty object placed on one or more pieces of paper to keep them from fluttering away.
Corpus desk
Index EN-paperweight · paperweight · English
paperweight · rank #63,870 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,870
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH parenteral
Nearest frequency peer: parenteral (+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 “paperweight”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- oversimplif…
oversimplified
36,136 corpus weight
- oxalate
oxalate
36,134 corpus weight
- paperweight
paperweight
36,131 corpus weight
- parenteral
parenteral
36,130 corpus weight
- Parsi
Parsi
36,129 corpus weight
- passé
passé
36,126 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “paperweight” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | paperweight |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #63,870 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “paperweight” in English
Rare enough to double-check
paperweight is uncommon English at frequency #63,870 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for paperweight, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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.
Etymologically, the entry records: From paper + weight. The correct English form is paperweight, spelled P-A-P-E-R-W-E-I-G-H-T.
Definition
- 1A small, decorative, somewhat weighty object placed on one or more pieces of paper to keep them from fluttering away.
- 2Any object used for this purpose.
- 3A useless piece of equipment.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how paperweight appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.
John used his coffee mug as a paperweight.
Etymology
From paper + weight.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "paperweight"?
What does "paperweight" mean?
What is the origin of the word "paperweight"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "paperweight", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).