soba
/ˈsəʊbə/
"soba" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“soba” is uncommon English (frequency #54,496 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,496
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A Japanese buckwheat noodle.
Corpus desk
Index EN-soba · soba · English
soba · rank #54,496 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,496
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH snook
Nearest frequency peer: snook (-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 “soba”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- snicker
snicker
45,507 corpus weight
- snook
snook
45,506 corpus weight
- soba
soba
45,505 corpus weight
- sociopoliti…
sociopolitical
45,504 corpus weight
- somersault
somersault
45,503 corpus weight
- sommelier
sommelier
45,502 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “soba” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | soba |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsəʊbə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #54,496 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “soba” in English
Rare enough to double-check
soba is uncommon English at frequency #54,496 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsəʊbə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A Japanese buckwheat noodle.".
Zero misspellings are on record for soba in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Japanese 蕎麦 (soba). The correct English form is soba, spelled S-O-B-A.
Definition
- 1A Japanese buckwheat noodle.
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 蕎麦 (soba).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "soba", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).