pulsar
"pulsar" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pulsar” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #41,829 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #41,829
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A rotating neutron star that emits radio pulses periodically.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pulsar |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #41,829 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pulsar” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pulsar is 6 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #41,829 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A rotating neutron star that emits radio pulses periodically.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for pulsar, with forms such as "plusar", "ppulsar", and "pulasr". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "pulse", "pulses", "pulsed", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Blend of pulsating + (radio) star, patterned after quasar. Coined by British astronomers Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell in 1968, and first used in print in The Daily Telegraph. By surface analysis, pulse + -ar The correct English form is pulsar, spelled P-U-L-S-A-R.
Definition
- 1A rotating neutron star that emits radio pulses periodically.
Etymology
Blend of pulsating + (radio) star, patterned after quasar. Coined by British astronomers Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell in 1968, and first used in print in The Daily Telegraph. By surface analysis, pulse + -ar
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: plusar,ppulsar,pulasr,pullsar,pulsarr,pulsra,pulssar,puslar,uplsar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pulsar - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “pulsar”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-U-L-S-A-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “pulse” - see the side-by-side comparison. pulsar vs pulse
- 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.