speedball

noun

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

"speedball" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“speedball” is uncommon English (frequency #81,843 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#81,843
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A mixture of heroin and cocaine or sometimes other drugs.

Corpus desk

Index EN-speedball · speedball · English

speedball · rank #81,843 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #81,843
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH speedup

Nearest frequency peer: speedup (+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 “speedball”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for speedball
PropertyValue
Headwordspeedball
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#81,843
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “speedball” 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).speedballfalls 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: “speedup” (#81,844), “Southworth” (#81,841), “Somnath” (#81,840). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “speedball” is #81,843. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

speedball is uncommon English at frequency #81,843 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 7 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for speedball, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From speed + ball. The correct English form is speedball, spelled S-P-E-E-D-B-A-L-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    A mixture of heroin and cocaine or sometimes other drugs.
  2. 2
    Coffee with espresso.
  3. 3
    A fastball.
  4. 4
    A competitive variant of paintball with an equal playing field, contrasted with woodsball.
  5. 5
    An Egyptian racquet sport.
  6. 6
    An improvised adhoc airdrop resupply pack, composed of ammo, food and water, and other supplies, stuffed into a body bag or duffle bag.
  7. 7
    Synonym of speed bag (“type of punching bag”).

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. This being Camden, every passing pisshead and stoner had a theory: bad E, dehydration, alcohol poisoning, probably done a speedball.

Etymology

From speed + ball.

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 "speedball"?
"speedball" is spelled S-P-E-E-D-B-A-L-L.
What does "speedball" mean?
As a noun, "speedball" means: A mixture of heroin and cocaine or sometimes other drugs.
What is the origin of the word "speedball"?
From speed + ball. 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 "speedball", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

spymaster#81,850Stackpole#81,853stoically#81,860symbolist#81,886

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list