rare bird
"rare-bird" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“rare bird” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An unusual or exceptional person or thing.
Corpus desk
Index EN-rare-bird · rare bird · English
rare bird · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | rare bird |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “rare bird” in English
Rare enough to double-check
rare bird is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for rare bird, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of Latin rāra avis, part of a commonly quoted line from Juvenal's Satire VI: rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno ("a bird as rare upon the earth as a black swan"). The correct English form is rare bird, spelled R-A-R-E- -B-I-R-D.
Definition
- 1An unusual or exceptional person or thing.
- 2Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rare, bird.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how rare bird appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
An occasional Afghan makes a good bushman. These rare birds, with the help of natives, found that by winding in and out over the soft ground of the valleys they could bring a camel-train where no wheeled transport could go.
Finds it more physical, that's an important word / Always seen first then heard / Such a rare bird
Etymology
Calque of Latin rāra avis, part of a commonly quoted line from Juvenal's Satire VI: rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno ("a bird as rare upon the earth as a black swan").
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.