born with a silver spoon in one's mouth
"born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-one-s-mouth" is a 31-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“born with a silver spoon in one's mouth” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as an adjective - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 39
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Born rich, or into a wealthy family.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | born with a silver spoon in one's mouth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 39 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “born with a silver spoon in one's mouth” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for born with a silver spoon in one's mouth is 39 letters long, classified as an adjective. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Born rich, or into a wealthy family.".
born with a silver spoon in one's mouth doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: * According to some, the original nautical expression is just born with a silver spoon and describes those young gentlemen who were able to enter the Royal Navy without examination and whose promotion was assured. The converse was born with a wooden ladle. … The correct English form is born with a silver spoon in one's mouth, spelled B-O-R-N- -W-I-T-H- -A- -S-I-L-V-E-R- -S-P-O-O-N- -I-N- -O-N-E-'-S- -M-O-U-T-H.
Definition
- 1Born rich, or into a wealthy family.
Etymology
* According to some, the original nautical expression is just born with a silver spoon and describes those young gentlemen who were able to enter the Royal Navy without examination and whose promotion was assured. The converse was born with a wooden ladle. * However, the phrase is first recorded as a Scottish proverb in the form "Every Man is no born with a Silver Spoon in his Mouth" (1721).
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 “born with a silver spoon in one's mouth”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-O-R-N- -W-I-T-H- -A- -S-I-L-V-E-R- -S-P-O-O-N- -I-N- -O-N-E-'-S- -M-O-U-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.