chase one's tail
"chase-one-s-tail" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chase one's tail” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To busily try to perform many tasks or to repeatedly revise one's plans, especially with inefficient use of one's time and limited results.
Corpus desk
Index EN-chase-one-s-tail · chase one's tail · English
chase one's tail · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 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 | chase one's tail |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “chase one's tail” in English
Rare enough to double-check
chase one's tail is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To busily try to perform many tasks or to repeatedly revise one's plans, especially with inefficient use of one's time and limited results.".
chase one's tail doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is chase one's tail, spelled C-H-A-S-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -T-A-I-L.
Definition
- 1To busily try to perform many tasks or to repeatedly revise one's plans, especially with inefficient use of one's time and limited results.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how chase one's tail appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
People wanting to get married . . . would have to trail around separately to arrange flowers, cars, a photographer, the cake and a reception venue. . . . "At the moment, they have to chase their tail making sure all these things are done."
"You're forever chasing your tail when you're dealing with such large areas. . . . It was difficult to see how we would ever get on top of the problem."
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.