PHB
"phb" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“PHB” is uncommon English (frequency #81,697 among 46,516 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #81,697
- frequency rank, English
- 46,516
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Initialism of pointy-haired boss, an incompetent micromanager.
Corpus desk
Index EN-phb · PHB · English
PHB · rank #81,697 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #81,697
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-0 0 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 46,516
- PHOTO-FINISH pharos
Nearest frequency peer: pharos (-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 “PHB”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- peritoneum
peritoneum
18,308 corpus weight
- phablet
phablet
18,306 corpus weight
- pharos
pharos
18,305 corpus weight
- PHB
PHB
18,304 corpus weight
- physicochem…
physicochemical
18,301 corpus weight
- piller
piller
18,300 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “PHB” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | PHB |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #81,697 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “PHB” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
PHB is uncommon English at frequency #81,697 among 46,516 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Initialism of pointy-haired boss, an incompetent micromanager.".
No misspelling variants are generated for PHB in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: After the character in Scott Adams' Dilbert comic strip. The correct English form is PHB, spelled P-H-B.
Definition
- 1Initialism of pointy-haired boss, an incompetent micromanager.
Etymology
After the character in Scott Adams' Dilbert comic strip.
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 "PHB", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 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.