concertina

/ˌkɒnsəˈtiːnə/

//ˌkɒnsəˈtiːnə// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"concertina" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“concertina” is uncommon English (frequency #68,952 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#68,952
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A musical instrument, like the various accordions, that is a member of the free-reed family of musical instruments, typically having buttons on both ends.

Corpus desk

Index EN-concertina · concertina · English

concertina · rank #68,952 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #68,952
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH concatenation

Nearest frequency peer: concatenation (-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 “concertina”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “concertina” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for concertina
PropertyValue
Headwordconcertina
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˌkɒnsəˈtiːnə/
Letters10
Frequency rank#68,952
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “concertina” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).concertinafalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “concatenation” (#68,951), “Compostela” (#68,949), “commedia” (#68,948). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “concertina” is #68,952. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

concertina is uncommon English at frequency #68,952 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌkɒnsəˈtiːnə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for concertina in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From concert + -ina. The correct English form is concertina, spelled C-O-N-C-E-R-T-I-N-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    A musical instrument, like the various accordions, that is a member of the free-reed family of musical instruments, typically having buttons on both ends.
  2. 2
    Something multiply folded like a concertina, such as a folded book, a bus door or a set of picture frames that are folded together.
  3. 3
    Coiled barbed wire for use as an obstacle.
  4. 4
    A type of booklet label, consisting of up to 32 pages of booklet as an insert.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how concertina appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls.
  2. Elsewhere, professionals could enthuse over new precision instruments capable, for instance, of measuring weights down to a tenth of a milligram, or over a host of self-registering thermometers and barometers, microscopes, typewriters, calculators and all sorts of technical and musical devices, including automatic concertinas, edeophones, auto-harps, bigo…

Etymology

From concert + -ina.

This word in other languages

acordeón(Español)accordéon(Français)Ziehharmonika(Deutsch)

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

How do you spell "concertina"?
"concertina" is spelled C-O-N-C-E-R-T-I-N-A. The IPA pronunciation is /ˌkɒnsəˈtiːnə/.
What does "concertina" mean?
As a noun, "concertina" means: A musical instrument, like the various accordions, that is a member of the free-reed family of musical instruments, typically having buttons on both ends.
How do you pronounce "concertina"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "concertina" is /ˌkɒnsəˈtiːnə/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "concertina"?
From concert + -ina. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "concertina", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Compostela#68,949Chatterton#68,921devilishly#68,992dispersive#69,001

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list