failsafe
"failsafe" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“failsafe” is uncommon English (frequency #62,885 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #62,885
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Alternative form of fail-safe.
Corpus desk
Index EN-failsafe · failsafe · English
failsafe · rank #62,885 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #62,885
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH featurette
Nearest frequency peer: featurette (+4 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 “failsafe”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- evanescence
evanescence
37,125 corpus weight
- evangelical…
evangelicalism
37,124 corpus weight
- exhumation
exhumation
37,123 corpus weight
- failsafe
failsafe
37,116 corpus weight
- featurette
featurette
37,112 corpus weight
- Festus
Festus
37,108 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “failsafe” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | failsafe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #62,885 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “failsafe” in English
Rare enough to double-check
failsafe is uncommon English at frequency #62,885 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Alternative form of fail-safe.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for failsafe in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is failsafe, spelled F-A-I-L-S-A-F-E.
Definition
- 1Alternative form of fail-safe.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how failsafe appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Each of the proposed failsafes may, in specific cases, be effective in slowing or preventing the introgression of alleles of concern from domesticated plants into natural populations.
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 "failsafe"?
What does "failsafe" mean?
What language does "failsafe" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "failsafe", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).