square bracket

noun

"square-bracket" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“square bracket” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
14
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Either of a pair of symbols, [ ], used for various purposes, e.g. to enclose text inserted or replaced by an editor, and to indicate various mathematical operations.

Corpus desk

Index EN-square-bracket · square bracket · English

square bracket · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for square bracket
PropertyValue
Headwordsquare bracket
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “square bracket” in English

square bracketranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

square bracket is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Either of a pair of symbols, [ ], used for various purposes, e.g. to enclose text inserted or replaced by an editor, and to indicate various mathematical operations.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for square bracket, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is square bracket, spelled S-Q-U-A-R-E- -B-R-A-C-K-E-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Either of a pair of symbols, [ ], used for various purposes, e.g. to enclose text inserted or replaced by an editor, and to indicate various mathematical operations.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. We must, in short, employ a special bracket for operative relations ; and the square bracket is the most convenient. Hence [a + bβ] x denotes that a + bβ operates on x, and [φ]ⁿ denotes that φ operates on itself n - 1 times.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "square bracket"?
"square bracket" is spelled S-Q-U-A-R-E- -B-R-A-C-K-E-T.
What does "square bracket" mean?
As a noun, "square bracket" means: Either of a pair of symbols, [ ], used for various purposes, e.g. to enclose text inserted or replaced by an editor, and to indicate various mathematical operations.
What language does "square bracket" come from?
"square bracket" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list