skua
/ˈskjuːə/
"skua" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“skua” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of various predatory seabirds of the genus Stercorarius that often chase other seabirds to steal their catches.
Corpus desk
Index EN-skua · skua · English
skua · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" 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 | skua |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈskjuːə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “skua” in English
Rare enough to double-check
skua is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈskjuːə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of various predatory seabirds of the genus Stercorarius that often chase other seabirds to steal their catches.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for skua, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Faroese skúgvur (“Great Skua”), from Old Norse skúfr, of unknown origin. The correct English form is skua, spelled S-K-U-A.
Definition
- 1Any of various predatory seabirds of the genus Stercorarius that often chase other seabirds to steal their catches.
Etymology
From Faroese skúgvur (“Great Skua”), from Old Norse skúfr, of unknown origin.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.