make a move
"make-a-move" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“make a move” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To take action.
Corpus desk
Index EN-make-a-move · make a move · English
make a move · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" 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 | make a move |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “make a move” in English
Rare enough to double-check
make a move is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for make a move in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is make a move, spelled M-A-K-E- -A- -M-O-V-E.
Definition
- 1To take action.
- 2To depart from a place; to set off.
- 3To initiate a conversation or perform an action intended to engage the willing attention of a person in whom one has a romantic or sexual interest; to approach someone of romantic or sexual appeal in hopes of escalating to a romantic or sexual encounter or relationship.
- 4Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see make, move.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how make a move appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He swallowed hard on his tea. —Well, ah must be making a move. Thanks again.
“We'll give you a lift, darling,” Lady Genevieve said languidly, rising. “It's time we made a move.”
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.