UWS
"uws" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“UWS” is uncommon English (frequency #87,955 among 1,433 “U” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #87,955
- frequency rank, English
- 1,433
- “U” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Initialism of Upper West Side: a neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.
Corpus desk
Index EN-uws · UWS · English
UWS · rank #87,955 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #87,955
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,433
- PHOTO-FINISH Ursuline
Nearest frequency peer: Ursuline (-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 “UWS”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- urf
urf
12,049 corpus weight
- Ursuline
Ursuline
12,047 corpus weight
- UWS
UWS
12,046 corpus weight
- vacay
vacay
12,045 corpus weight
- vacillating
vacillating
12,044 corpus weight
- Valmont
Valmont
12,042 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “UWS” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | UWS |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #87,955 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “UWS” in English
Rare enough to double-check
UWS is uncommon English at frequency #87,955 among 1,433 “U” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for UWS in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is UWS, spelled U-W-S.
Definition
- 1Initialism of Upper West Side: a neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.
- 2Initialism of University of Wisconsin–Superior.
- 3Initialism of University of the West of Scotland.
- 4Initialism of University of Western States.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how UWS appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
After some new Shake Shack UWS plywood was revealed yesterday, there was some chatter in the comments and elsewhere that the creators were ripping off the...
When word of a dead woman at a local swimming hole gets out, for example, an Upper West Side transplant with the user name BOYMAMA laments, “Jesus Christ, we left the UWS to move somewhere safe!”
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 "UWS", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).