colander
/ˈkɒləndə(ɹ)/
"colander" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“colander” is uncommon English (frequency #61,381 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,381
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A bowl-shaped kitchen utensil with holes in it used for draining food that has been cooking in water, such as pasta.
Corpus desk
Index EN-colander · colander · English
colander · rank #61,381 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #61,381
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Colston
Nearest frequency peer: Colston (+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 “colander”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- cleat
cleat
38,625 corpus weight
- clumsiness
clumsiness
38,623 corpus weight
- Clydebank
Clydebank
38,622 corpus weight
- colander
colander
38,620 corpus weight
- Colston
Colston
38,619 corpus weight
- combi
combi
38,617 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “colander” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | colander |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɒləndə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #61,381 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “colander” in English
Rare enough to double-check
colander is uncommon English at frequency #61,381 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkɒləndə(ɹ)/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A bowl-shaped kitchen utensil with holes in it used for draining food that has been cooking in water, such as pasta.".
Zero misspellings are on record for colander in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English colyndore, coloundour, colonur, variants of Middle English culdor, culdore, culatre, ultimately from Latin cōlātōrium, from Latin cōlum. Cognates include Italian colino and Spanish colador. The correct English form is colander, spelled C-O-L-A-N-D-E-R.
Definition
- 1A bowl-shaped kitchen utensil with holes in it used for draining food that has been cooking in water, such as pasta.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how colander appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
An electric fire came next, followed by an umbrella and then a colander. "This bowl will carry no water," he muttered. "Some loon hath pierced it with holes."
Etymology
From Middle English colyndore, coloundour, colonur, variants of Middle English culdor, culdore, culatre, ultimately from Latin cōlātōrium, from Latin cōlum. Cognates include Italian colino and Spanish colador.
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 "colander", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).