lickpenny
"lickpenny" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lickpenny” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Something that devours or absorbs lots of money; something expensive.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lickpenny · lickpenny · English
lickpenny · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "L" 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 | lickpenny |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “lickpenny” in English
Rare enough to double-check
lickpenny is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for lickpenny, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From lick + penny. The correct English form is lickpenny, spelled L-I-C-K-P-E-N-N-Y.
Definition
- 1Something that devours or absorbs lots of money; something expensive.
- 2A miserly person.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how lickpenny appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
For well London Lykke-peny for ones and eye, / For lake of money I may not spede.
[…] at Smyrna, you talked of a lawsuit—law is a lickpenny, Mr Tyrrel—no counsellor like the pound in purse.
Etymology
From lick + penny.
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.