sparrowhawk
"sparrowhawk" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sparrowhawk” is uncommon English (frequency #79,990 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,990
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, a small, short-winged European hawk that preys on smaller birds.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sparrowhawk |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #79,990 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sparrowhawk” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sparrowhawk is uncommon English at frequency #79,990 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for sparrowhawk, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sparhauk, sperhauk, from Old English spearhafoc, spearhabuc (“sparrow-hawk”), from Proto-West Germanic *sparwahabuk, from Proto-Germanic *sparwahabukaz, equivalent to sparrow + hawk. Cognate with Danish spurvehøg (“sparrowhawk”), Swedish… The correct English form is sparrowhawk, spelled S-P-A-R-R-O-W-H-A-W-K.
Definition
- 1A Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, a small, short-winged European hawk that preys on smaller birds.
- 2A Eurasian sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus, a small, short-winged European hawk that preys on smaller birds.
- 3Any of numerous other relatively small birds of Old World species of Accipiter, that prey on smaller birds or otherwise resemble A. nisus.
- 4Alternative form of sparrow hawk; American kestrel, Falco sparverius, of similar size and habit.
Etymology
From Middle English sparhauk, sperhauk, from Old English spearhafoc, spearhabuc (“sparrow-hawk”), from Proto-West Germanic *sparwahabuk, from Proto-Germanic *sparwahabukaz, equivalent to sparrow + hawk. Cognate with Danish spurvehøg (“sparrowhawk”), Swedish sparvhök (“sparrowhawk”), Icelandic sparrhaukur (“sparrowhawk”).
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 “sparrowhawk”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-P-A-R-R-O-W-H-A-W-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.