railgun
/ˈɹeɪl.ɡʌn/
"railgun" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“railgun” is uncommon English (frequency #82,705 among 21,470 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,705
- frequency rank, English
- 21,470
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An electromagnetic gun that uses a large electrical current to propel a projectile down a track of two parallel conductive rails.
| 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) |
Where “railgun” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
railgun is uncommon English at frequency #82,705 among 21,470 “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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Using “railgun”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is R-A-I-L-G-U-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɹeɪl.ɡʌn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this 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.