townsman
"townsman" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“townsman” is uncommon English (frequency #96,586 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #96,586
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A man who is a resident of a town, especially of one's own town.
Corpus desk
Index EN-townsman · townsman · English
townsman · rank #96,586 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #96,586
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH Towcester
Nearest frequency peer: Towcester (-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 “townsman”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- topspin
topspin
3,420 corpus weight
- Torey
Torey
3,419 corpus weight
- Towcester
Towcester
3,416 corpus weight
- townsman
townsman
3,415 corpus weight
- trabecular
trabecular
3,412 corpus weight
- transcripto…
transcriptome
3,411 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “townsman” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | townsman |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #96,586 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “townsman” in English
Rare enough to double-check
townsman is uncommon English at frequency #96,586 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for townsman in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English townes-man, from Old English tūnmann, tūnes mann, equivalent to town + -s- + man. The correct English form is townsman, spelled T-O-W-N-S-M-A-N.
Definition
- 1A man who is a resident of a town, especially of one's own town.
- 2A resident of a university town, as opposed to a scholar at the university; a townie.
- 3Synonym of oppidan (“type of student”).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how townsman appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Largely by reason of the persistence of John Crevallier Cobbold, a leading townsman and a member of a respected Suffolk family, the scheme was brought to fruition and by an Act dated July 19, 1844, the Eastern Union Railway came into existence.
Etymology
From Middle English townes-man, from Old English tūnmann, tūnes mann, equivalent to town + -s- + man.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "townsman", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).