songbook

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"songbook" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“songbook” is uncommon English (frequency #50,242 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,242
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A book containing songs.

Corpus desk

Index EN-songbook · songbook · English

songbook · rank #50,242 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,242
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH snotty

Nearest frequency peer: snotty (-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 “songbook”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “songbook” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for songbook
PropertyValue
Headwordsongbook
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#50,242
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “songbook” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).songbookfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “snotty” (#50,241), “spake” (#50,243), “snooty” (#50,240). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “songbook” is #50,242. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

songbook is uncommon English at frequency #50,242 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A book containing songs.".

No misspelling variants are generated for songbook in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English song boke, from Old English sangbōc (“a music book; songbook”), equivalent to song + book. Compare Saterland Frisian Songbouk (“songbook”), West Frisian sjongboek (“songbook”), Dutch zangboek (“songbook”), German Low German Sangbook (“so… The correct English form is songbook, spelled S-O-N-G-B-O-O-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    A book containing songs.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how songbook appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Some of the young folks asked Mrs. Long could they have a sing at her home that Sunday afternoon; she readily agreed, telling them to come early, bring their songbooks, and have a good sing.
  2. In uncritical homage to the heyday of Hollywood musicals, Branagh sets the action in a kind of soundstagey Oxbridge (wittily designed by Tim Harvey) and at crucial moments has his cast spin on their heels and croon American songbook standards by Porter, Kern, Gershwin and company instead of launching into sonnets and masques.

Etymology

From Middle English song boke, from Old English sangbōc (“a music book; songbook”), equivalent to song + book. Compare Saterland Frisian Songbouk (“songbook”), West Frisian sjongboek (“songbook”), Dutch zangboek (“songbook”), German Low German Sangbook (“songbook; hymnbook; hymnal”), German Gesangbuch (“songbook; hymnbook; hymnal”), Danish sangbog (“songbook”), Swedish sångbok (“songbook”), Faroese songbók (“songbook”), Icelandic söngbók (“songbook”).

This word in other languages

cancionero(Español)chansonnier(Français)Liederbuch(Deutsch)cancioneiro(Português)

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 "songbook"?
"songbook" is spelled S-O-N-G-B-O-O-K.
What does "songbook" mean?
As a noun, "songbook" means: A book containing songs.
What is the origin of the word "songbook"?
From Middle English song boke, from Old English sangbōc (“a music book; songbook”), equivalent to song + book. Compare Saterland Frisian Songbouk (“songbook”), West Frisian sjongboek (“songbook”), Dutch zangboek (“songbook”), German Low German San... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "songbook", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sneering#50,239squatter#50,245stickler#50,248skinning#50,235

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list