clasp-knife
"clasp-knife" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“clasp-knife” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. 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) - A knife with a hinged blade or blades that, for safety when not in use, can be folded into a slot in the handle.
Corpus desk
Index EN-clasp-knife · clasp-knife · English
clasp-knife · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-3 3 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 | clasp-knife |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “clasp-knife” in English
Rare enough to double-check
clasp-knife is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A knife with a hinged blade or blades that, for safety when not in use, can be folded into a slot in the handle.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for clasp-knife in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, 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 clasp-knife, spelled C-L-A-S-P---K-N-I-F-E.
Definition
- 1A knife with a hinged blade or blades that, for safety when not in use, can be folded into a slot in the handle.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how clasp-knife appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
...there is yet ample evidence of the existence of clasp-knives ages before the production of the Canterbury Tales. Among Etruscan antiquities in the Bronze Room of the British Museum are several clasp-knives, some of them with bone, others with bronze hafts, their blades being of iron — a metal employed for cutting implements by the Tyrrhenian tribes, at…
“Well, this knife is called a clasp-knife, because it shuts and opens, as you see, and it has three blades — a big one for cuttin’ up your victuals with, as you see me doin’; and two little ones for parin’ your nails and pickin’ your teeth, an’ mendin’ pens an’ pencils — though of course you don’t know what that means.”
Synonyms
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.