seafarer
"seafarer" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“seafarer” is uncommon English (frequency #87,800 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,800
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sailor or mariner.
Corpus desk
Index EN-seafarer · seafarer · English
seafarer · rank #87,800 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,800
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Sealand
Nearest frequency peer: Sealand (+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 “seafarer”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- sconces
sconces
12,207 corpus weight
- scopolamine
scopolamine
12,206 corpus weight
- seafarer
seafarer
12,201 corpus weight
- Sealand
Sealand
12,200 corpus weight
- Seda
Seda
12,199 corpus weight
- seel
seel
12,197 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “seafarer” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | seafarer |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #87,800 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “seafarer” in English
Rare enough to double-check
seafarer is uncommon English at frequency #87,800 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for seafarer in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *se-farere (suggested by se-farende, sa farinde (“sea-faring”)) equivalent to sea + farer (“traveler”). Cognate with Middle Dutch seevarer, whence Modern Dutch zeevaarder (“seafarer”), West Frisian seefarder (“seafarer”), German Seefahre… The correct English form is seafarer, spelled S-E-A-F-A-R-E-R.
Definition
- 1A sailor or mariner.
- 2One who travels by sea.
Etymology
From Middle English *se-farere (suggested by se-farende, sa farinde (“sea-faring”)) equivalent to sea + farer (“traveler”). Cognate with Middle Dutch seevarer, whence Modern Dutch zeevaarder (“seafarer”), West Frisian seefarder (“seafarer”), German Seefahrer (“seafarer”), Swedish sjöfarare (“seafarer”).
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
How do you spell "seafarer"?
What does "seafarer" mean?
What is the origin of the word "seafarer"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "seafarer", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).