delicatessen
/ˌdɛlɪkəˈtɛsən/
"delicatessen" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“delicatessen” is uncommon English (frequency #54,115 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,115
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A shop that sells cooked or prepared foods ready for serving.
Corpus desk
Index EN-delicatessen · delicatessen · English
delicatessen · rank #54,115 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,115
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH delude
Nearest frequency peer: delude (+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 “delicatessen”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- decoupling
decoupling
45,889 corpus weight
- DefCon
DefCon
45,888 corpus weight
- delicatessen
delicatessen
45,886 corpus weight
- delude
delude
45,885 corpus weight
- demagogue
demagogue
45,884 corpus weight
- dene
dene
45,883 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “delicatessen” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | delicatessen |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌdɛlɪkəˈtɛsən/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #54,115 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “delicatessen” in English
Rare enough to double-check
delicatessen is uncommon English at frequency #54,115 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌdɛlɪkəˈtɛsən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A shop that sells cooked or prepared foods ready for serving.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for delicatessen, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. 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: First attested 1864. From German Delikatessen, plural of Delikatesse (“delicacy, fine food”), at the time also spelt Delicatesse(n), from French délicatesse, from délicat (“fine”), from Latin delicatus (“alluring”). The sense of store is much more recent, o… The correct English form is delicatessen, spelled D-E-L-I-C-A-T-E-S-S-E-N.
Definition
- 1A shop that sells cooked or prepared foods ready for serving.
Etymology
First attested 1864. From German Delikatessen, plural of Delikatesse (“delicacy, fine food”), at the time also spelt Delicatesse(n), from French délicatesse, from délicat (“fine”), from Latin delicatus (“alluring”). The sense of store is much more recent, originating in ellipsis from the common attributive use, as in delicatessen shop, delicatessen store, etc.
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 "delicatessen", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).