capercaillie
/kæpəˈkeɪli/
"capercaillie" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“capercaillie” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large, black grouse of the genus Tetrao in the bird family Phasianidae, especially the western capercaillie, Tetrao urogallus.
Corpus desk
Index EN-capercaillie · capercaillie · English
capercaillie · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" 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 | capercaillie |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kæpəˈkeɪli/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “capercaillie” in English
Rare enough to double-check
capercaillie is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /kæpəˈkeɪli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A large, black grouse of the genus Tetrao in the bird family Phasianidae, especially the western capercaillie, Tetrao urogallus.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for capercaillie, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Scots capercailzie (for the -z-, see Mackenzie and tailzie), a corruption of Scottish Gaelic capall (“horse”) + coille (“of the woods”). The correct English form is capercaillie, spelled C-A-P-E-R-C-A-I-L-L-I-E.
Definition
- 1A large, black grouse of the genus Tetrao in the bird family Phasianidae, especially the western capercaillie, Tetrao urogallus.
Etymology
Borrowed from Scots capercailzie (for the -z-, see Mackenzie and tailzie), a corruption of Scottish Gaelic capall (“horse”) + coille (“of the woods”).
Synonyms
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.