water polo
/ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ˈpəʊləʊ/
"water-polo" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“water polo” 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 May 6, 2026) - A water sport consisting of two teams of swimmers who have to throw the ball into the opponent's goal.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | water polo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ˈpəʊləʊ/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “water polo” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
water polo is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ˈpəʊləʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A water sport consisting of two teams of swimmers who have to throw the ball into the opponent's goal.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for water polo, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is water polo, spelled W-A-T-E-R- -P-O-L-O.
Definition
- 1A water sport consisting of two teams of swimmers who have to throw the ball into the opponent's goal.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “water polo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-A-T-E-R- -P-O-L-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)ˈpəʊləʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.