mikado
/mɪˈkɑːdəʊ/
"mikado" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mikado” is an uncommon English word, ranked #53,701 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #53,701
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A former title of the emperors of Japan during a certain period.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mikado |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɪˈkɑːdəʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #53,701 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mikado” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mikado is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɪˈkɑːdəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #53,701 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for mikado, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Japanese 御門 (mikado), from 御 (mi, “honorable”) + 門 (kado, “gate, portal”). The correct English form is mikado, spelled M-I-K-A-D-O.
Definition
- 1A former title of the emperors of Japan during a certain period.
- 2Any emperor of Japan.
- 3A game of skill, in which identically shaped (but differently colored and valued) wooden sticks must be removed from a pile without disturbing the remaining stack.
- 4A fabric having a stiff twill weave.
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 御門 (mikado), from 御 (mi, “honorable”) + 門 (kado, “gate, portal”).
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); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “mikado”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-K-A-D-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɪˈkɑːdəʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.