portcullis
/pɔːtˈkʌl.ɪs/
"portcullis" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“portcullis” is uncommon English (frequency #78,951 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #78,951
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.
Corpus desk
Index EN-portcullis · portcullis · English
portcullis · rank #78,951 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #78,951
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH poorhouse
Nearest frequency peer: poorhouse (-2 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 “portcullis”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Pomerania
Pomerania
21,055 corpus weight
- pone
pone
21,053 corpus weight
- poorhouse
poorhouse
21,052 corpus weight
- portcullis
portcullis
21,050 corpus weight
- preen
preen
21,047 corpus weight
- presupposit…
presupposition
21,046 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “portcullis” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | portcullis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɔːtˈkʌl.ɪs/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #78,951 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “portcullis” in English
Rare enough to double-check
portcullis is uncommon English at frequency #78,951 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /pɔːtˈkʌl.ɪs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for portcullis in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English portcolyse, from Old French porte colëice, from porte (“door”) + feminine of colëiz (“sliding”), ultimately from Latin colāre. The correct English form is portcullis, spelled P-O-R-T-C-U-L-L-I-S.
Definition
- 1A gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.
- 2An old English coin from the reign of Elizabeth I, minted for the use of the East India Company, and bearing the picture of a portcullis on the reverse.
Etymology
From Middle English portcolyse, from Old French porte colëice, from porte (“door”) + feminine of colëiz (“sliding”), ultimately from Latin colāre.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "portcullis", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).