slimeball
/ˈslaɪm.bɔːl/
"slimeball" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“slimeball” is uncommon English (frequency #96,488 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #96,488
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A round lump made up of or coated with slime or a slime-like substance such as mucus.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | slimeball |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈslaɪm.bɔːl/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #96,488 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “slimeball” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
slimeball is uncommon English at frequency #96,488 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈslaɪm.bɔːl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for slimeball in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sley- Proto-Germanic *slīmą Old English slīm English slime Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- Proto-Germanic *balluz Old English *beall Middle English bal English ball English slimeball From slime + ball. Sense 1 (“a round lump m… The correct English form is slimeball, spelled S-L-I-M-E-B-A-L-L.
Definition
- 1A round lump made up of or coated with slime or a slime-like substance such as mucus.
- 2A round lump made up of or coated with slime or a slime-like substance such as mucus.
- 3A person who is slimy (that is, sneaky or underhanded) or otherwise undesirable.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sley- Proto-Germanic *slīmą Old English slīm English slime Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- Proto-Germanic *balluz Old English *beall Middle English bal English ball English slimeball From slime + ball. Sense 1 (“a round lump made up of or coated with slime or a slime-like substance”) is a calque of German Schleimkugel, from Schleim (“mucus, slime”) + Kugel (“ball”), while sense 1.1 (“a mucus-coated lump containing the cercariae of a liver fluke”) may be a calque of German Schleimball (from Schleim (“slime”) + Ball (“ball”)).
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 "slimeball"?
What does "slimeball" mean?
How do you pronounce "slimeball"?
What is the origin of the word "slimeball"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “slimeball”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-L-I-M-E-B-A-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈslaɪm.bɔːl/ (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
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.