underflow
"underflow" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“underflow” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A current flowing below the surface.
Corpus desk
Index EN-underflow · underflow · English
underflow · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "U" 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 | underflow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “underflow” in English
Rare enough to double-check
underflow is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for underflow in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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 under- + flow, modelled on overflow. The correct English form is underflow, spelled U-N-D-E-R-F-L-O-W.
Definition
- 1A current flowing below the surface.
- 2A condition in which the value of a computed quantity is smaller than the smallest non-zero value that can be physically stored; usually treated as an error condition.
- 3The error condition that results from an attempt to retrieve an item from an empty stack.
Etymology
From under- + flow, modelled on overflow.
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.