clothesline
/ˈkləʊðzlaɪn/
"clothesline" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“clothesline” is uncommon English (frequency #56,016 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,016
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A rope or cord tied up outdoors to hang clothes on so they can dry.
Corpus desk
Index EN-clothesline · clothesline · English
clothesline · rank #56,016 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #56,016
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH clef
Nearest frequency peer: clef (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “clothesline”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- citron
citron
43,988 corpus weight
- clef
clef
43,986 corpus weight
- clothesline
clothesline
43,985 corpus weight
- coarsely
coarsely
43,984 corpus weight
- codification
codification
43,983 corpus weight
- codon
codon
43,982 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “clothesline” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | clothesline |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkləʊðzlaɪn/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #56,016 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “clothesline” in English
Rare enough to double-check
clothesline is uncommon English at frequency #56,016 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkləʊðzlaɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
clothesline doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From clothes + line. The correct English form is clothesline, spelled C-L-O-T-H-E-S-L-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1A rope or cord tied up outdoors to hang clothes on so they can dry.
- 2A structure with multiple cords for the same purpose, such as a Hills hoist.
- 3The act of knocking a person over by striking his or her upper body or neck with one's arm, as if he or she had run into a low clothesline.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how clothesline appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hang this towel out on the clothesline for me.
Etymology
From clothes + line.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "clothesline", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).