built like a tank

adj

"built-like-a-tank" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“built like a tank” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
17
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Broad-shouldered and of solid, muscular build.

Corpus desk

Index EN-built-like-a-tank · built like a tank · English

built like a tank · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 17 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "B" 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.

Key facts for built like a tank
PropertyValue
Headwordbuilt like a tank
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “built like a tank” in English

built like a tanksits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

built like a tank is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for built like a tank in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is built like a tank, spelled B-U-I-L-T- -L-I-K-E- -A- -T-A-N-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    Broad-shouldered and of solid, muscular build.
  2. 2
    Sturdy; exceptionally well constructed.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how built like a tank appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Standing 6'8" and built like a tank, Adam was not a man to be messed with.

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

How do you spell "built like a tank"?
"built like a tank" is spelled B-U-I-L-T- -L-I-K-E- -A- -T-A-N-K.
What does "built like a tank" mean?
As an adjective, "built like a tank" means: Broad-shouldered and of solid, muscular build.
What language does "built like a tank" come from?
"built like a tank" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list