cattywampus
"cattywampus" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cattywampus” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of catawampus (“askew”).
Corpus desk
Index EN-cattywampus · cattywampus · English
cattywampus · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | cattywampus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cattywampus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cattywampus 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 cattywampus 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 no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, 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 cattywampus, spelled C-A-T-T-Y-W-A-M-P-U-S.
Definition
- 1Synonym of catawampus (“askew”).
- 2Synonym of cater-corner (“diagonal to, not directly across from nor adjacent to”).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cattywampus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Measure carefully before cutting, or the entire structure will turn out cattywampus.
City hall is cattywampus to the post office.
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.