five-finger discount
"five-finger-discount" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“five-finger discount” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 20
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Theft or pilferage, typically of a small item; shoplifting.
Corpus desk
Index EN-five-finger-discount · five-finger discount · English
five-finger discount · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 20 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | five-finger discount |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 20 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “five-finger discount” in English
Rare enough to double-check
five-finger discount is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Theft or pilferage, typically of a small item; shoplifting.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for five-finger discount, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is five-finger discount, spelled F-I-V-E---F-I-N-G-E-R- -D-I-S-C-O-U-N-T.
Definition
- 1Theft or pilferage, typically of a small item; shoplifting.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how five-finger discount appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I was a burglary detective for three years before I joined the Speaker's Bureau, and you might say I managed to acquire a few things at a five-finger discount, if you catch my drift.
- Hey, guys. Where'd you get all that great stuff? - Five-finger discount, man.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.