chase one's tail
"chase-one-s-tail" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chase one's tail” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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.
| 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) |
Where “chase one's tail” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for chase one's tail is 16 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.
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
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Using “chase one's tail”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-H-A-S-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -T-A-I-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.