sideburns
/ˈsaɪd.bɜː(ɹ)nz/
"sideburns" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sideburns” is an uncommon English word, ranked #51,391 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #51,391
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Facial hair reaching from the top of the head down the side of the face to the side of the chin.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sideburns |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsaɪd.bɜː(ɹ)nz/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #51,391 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sideburns” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sideburns is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsaɪd.bɜː(ɹ)nz/. Corpus data places it at rank #51,391 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Facial hair reaching from the top of the head down the side of the face to the side of the chin.".
sideburns doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Reformed from burnside, named after American Army general Ambrose Burnside (1824–1881), noted for his unusual facial hair. The correct English form is sideburns, spelled S-I-D-E-B-U-R-N-S.
Definition
- 1Facial hair reaching from the top of the head down the side of the face to the side of the chin.
Etymology
Reformed from burnside, named after American Army general Ambrose Burnside (1824–1881), noted for his unusual facial hair.
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 “sideburns”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-I-D-E-B-U-R-N-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsaɪd.bɜː(ɹ)nz/ (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
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.