cattail
/ˈkæt.teɪl/noun
cattail is spelled C-A-T-T-A-I-L: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 117,098th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cattail means “Any of several perennial herbs, of the genus Typha, that have long flat leaves, and grow in marshy places” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cattail is cattails.
How many letters and syllables are in cattail?
| Letters | 7: C-A-T-T-A-I-L |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 15 million words; the 117,098th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is cattail?
Cattail appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 117,098th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce cattail?
- /ˈkæt.teɪl/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-cattail.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cattail
- cattails plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cattail mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
USAny of several perennial herbs, of the genus Typha, that have long flat leaves, and grow in marshy places.
- 2
A cat-o'-nine-tails.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cattail in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense any of several perennial herbs of the genus Typha:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | massette, quenouille |
| German | Rohrkolben, Kolbenschilf |
| Portuguese | tifa |
| Spanish | espadaña |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does cattail come from?
From Middle English cattal, cattyle (also as cattestail), equivalent to cat + tail.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).