Steinway

noun

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

The verdict

“Steinway” is uncommon English (frequency #55,773 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#55,773
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A piano made by Steinway & Sons, a German-American piano company founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg.

Corpus desk

Index EN-steinway · Steinway · English

Steinway · rank #55,773 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #55,773
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH stepbrother

Nearest frequency peer: stepbrother (+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 “Steinway”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Steinway
PropertyValue
HeadwordSteinway
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#55,773
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Steinway” 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).Steinwayfalls in this rarity band:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “stepbrother” (#55,774), “steamboats” (#55,771), “stocker” (#55,776). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “Steinway” is #55,773. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Steinway is uncommon English at frequency #55,773 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A piano made by Steinway & Sons, a German-American piano company founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg.".

No misspelling variants are generated for Steinway in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. 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 the surname of the piano maker, a German immigrant to Manhattan whose original surname was Steinweg. The correct English form is Steinway, spelled S-T-E-I-N-W-A-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    A piano made by Steinway & Sons, a German-American piano company founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. After supper — which is a lengthy, spoon-fed, dribblesome business — he likes to play Schubert or Brahms on the Steinway in the conservatory.

Etymology

From the surname of the piano maker, a German immigrant to Manhattan whose original surname was Steinweg.

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 "Steinway"?
"Steinway" is spelled S-T-E-I-N-W-A-Y.
What does "Steinway" mean?
As a noun, "Steinway" means: A piano made by Steinway & Sons, a German-American piano company founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg.
What is the origin of the word "Steinway"?
From the surname of the piano maker, a German immigrant to Manhattan whose original surname was Steinweg. 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 "Steinway", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list