railgun
/ˈɹeɪl.ɡʌn/
"railgun" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“railgun” is uncommon English (frequency #82,705 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,705
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An electromagnetic gun that uses a large electrical current to propel a projectile down a track of two parallel conductive rails.
Corpus desk
Index EN-railgun · railgun · English
railgun · rank #82,705 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #82,705
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH rangeland
Nearest frequency peer: rangeland (+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 “railgun”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Rabelais
Rabelais
17,300 corpus weight
- radian
radian
17,299 corpus weight
- railgun
railgun
17,296 corpus weight
- rangeland
rangeland
17,295 corpus weight
- rapey
rapey
17,294 corpus weight
- Rastafari
Rastafari
17,293 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “railgun” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | railgun |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɹeɪl.ɡʌn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #82,705 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “railgun” in English
Rare enough to double-check
railgun is uncommon English at frequency #82,705 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈɹeɪl.ɡʌn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
railgun has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From rail + gun. * (railway gun): From being a gun mounted on a rail car, and being railroad-mobile. * (EM gun): From being a projectile ejecting device with a pair of electric conducting rails that a launch sled runs along, which shoots the projectile. The correct English form is railgun, spelled R-A-I-L-G-U-N.
Definition
- 1An electromagnetic gun that uses a large electrical current to propel a projectile down a track of two parallel conductive rails.
- 2A railway gun.
- 3A benchrest rifle.
Etymology
From rail + gun. * (railway gun): From being a gun mounted on a rail car, and being railroad-mobile. * (EM gun): From being a projectile ejecting device with a pair of electric conducting rails that a launch sled runs along, which shoots the projectile.
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 "railgun", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).