Samarra

name

"samarra" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Samarra” is uncommon English (frequency #66,259 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#66,259
frequency rank, English
54,294
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A city in Iraq, on the east bank of the Tigris. In medieval times, it was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Key facts for Samarra
PropertyValue
HeadwordSamarra
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters7
Frequency rank#66,259
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “Samarra” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). Samarra lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Samarra is uncommon English at frequency #66,259 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A city in Iraq, on the east bank of the Tigris. In medieval times, it was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate.".

Samarra doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Arabic سَامَرَّاء (sāmarrāʔ). The correct English form is Samarra, spelled S-A-M-A-R-R-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    A city in Iraq, on the east bank of the Tigris. In medieval times, it was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic سَامَرَّاء (sāmarrāʔ).

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

How do you spell "Samarra"?
"Samarra" is spelled S-A-M-A-R-R-A.
What does "Samarra" mean?
As a proper noun, "Samarra" means: A city in Iraq, on the east bank of the Tigris. In medieval times, it was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate.
What is the origin of the word "Samarra"?
Borrowed from Arabic سَامَرَّاء (sāmarrāʔ). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “Samarra”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-A-M-A-R-R-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list