showboat
/ˈʃoʊˌboʊt/
"showboat" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“showboat” is uncommon English (frequency #65,496 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,496
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A river steamboat having a resident theatre.
Corpus desk
Index EN-showboat · showboat · English
showboat · rank #65,496 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,496
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shipbuilder
Nearest frequency peer: shipbuilder (-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 “showboat”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Shafiq
Shafiq
34,508 corpus weight
- shipbuilder
shipbuilder
34,506 corpus weight
- showboat
showboat
34,505 corpus weight
- showground
showground
34,504 corpus weight
- shrewdly
shrewdly
34,503 corpus weight
- shuns
shuns
34,502 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “showboat” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | showboat |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃoʊˌboʊt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #65,496 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “showboat” in English
Rare enough to double-check
showboat is uncommon English at frequency #65,496 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈʃoʊˌboʊt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
showboat has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From show + boat. The correct English form is showboat, spelled S-H-O-W-B-O-A-T.
Definition
- 1A river steamboat having a resident theatre.
- 2A showoff.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how showboat appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And Agnes Moorehead henpecks with stern persistence as Parthy, the captain's loving wife. The sets, which include a full-sized showboat with belching double stacks and sternwheel, are in the best Metro tradition, which means as sumptuous as sumptuous can be.
Mr. Sterling was born in Baltimore on June 24, 1915, to Jack Sexton and Edna Cable, veteran performers in vaudeville, showboats and stock companies.
Etymology
From show + boat.
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 "showboat", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).