like a duck takes to water
"like-a-duck-takes-to-water" is a 21-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“like a duck takes to water” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 26
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Very naturally; without effort.
Corpus desk
Index EN-like-a-duck-takes-to-wat · like a duck takes to water · English
like a duck takes to water · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 26 letters
- VOW-9 9 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 | like a duck takes to water |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 26 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “like a duck takes to water” in English
Rare enough to double-check
like a duck takes to water is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Very naturally; without effort.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for like a duck takes to water, 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 tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is like a duck takes to water, spelled L-I-K-E- -A- -D-U-C-K- -T-A-K-E-S- -T-O- -W-A-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1Very naturally; without effort.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how like a duck takes to water appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Near-synonyms: smoothly, gracefully
She started skating and learned quickly, like a duck takes to water.
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.