Holy Grail

name

"holy-grail" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Holy Grail” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An artifact in Arthurian mythology, being the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper and in which some of his blood was caught during the crucifixion.

Corpus desk

Index EN-holy-grail · Holy Grail · English

Holy Grail · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "H" 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.

Key facts for Holy Grail
PropertyValue
HeadwordHoly Grail
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechProper noun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Holy Grail” in English

Holy Grailranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Holy Grail is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for Holy Grail in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Holy Grayle. (web page layout): So called because it was traditionally difficult to achieve with the available markup. The correct English form is Holy Grail, spelled H-O-L-Y- -G-R-A-I-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    An artifact in Arthurian mythology, being the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper and in which some of his blood was caught during the crucifixion.
  2. 2
    A web page layout with fixed-width columns to the left and right, and a central area that fills the remaining space.

Etymology

From Middle English Holy Grayle. (web page layout): So called because it was traditionally difficult to achieve with the available markup.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Holy Grail"?
"Holy Grail" is spelled H-O-L-Y- -G-R-A-I-L.
What does "Holy Grail" mean?
As a proper noun, "Holy Grail" means: An artifact in Arthurian mythology, being the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper and in which some of his blood was caught during the crucifixion.
What is the origin of the word "Holy Grail"?
From Middle English Holy Grayle. (web page layout): So called because it was traditionally difficult to achieve with the available markup. 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list