top banana
/ˌtɑp bəˈnænə/
"top-banana" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“top banana” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The boss, the leader.
Corpus desk
Index EN-top-banana · top banana · English
top banana · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | top banana |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌtɑp bəˈnænə/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “top banana” in English
Rare enough to double-check
top banana is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌtɑp bəˈnænə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for top banana, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is top banana, spelled T-O-P- -B-A-N-A-N-A.
Definition
- 1The boss, the leader.
- 2The principal comedian in a vaudeville or burlesque show.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how top banana appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Only the top banana can make a decision of that magnitude.
He was hilarious, and remained the top banana on the tour for years.
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.