minke
/ˈmɪŋki/
"minke" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“minke” is uncommon English (frequency #69,250 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #69,250
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of minke whale.
Corpus desk
Index EN-minke · minke · English
minke · rank #69,250 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #69,250
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH milady
Nearest frequency peer: milady (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “minke”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- meron
meron
30,757 corpus weight
- miasma
miasma
30,754 corpus weight
- microeconom…
microeconomics
30,753 corpus weight
- milady
milady
30,752 corpus weight
- minke
minke
30,751 corpus weight
- MMD
MMD
30,749 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “minke” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | minke |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɪŋki/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #69,250 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “minke” in English
Rare enough to double-check
minke is uncommon English at frequency #69,250 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈmɪŋki/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of minke whale.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for minke, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Norwegian minkehval, allegedly after a crew member of the Norwegian whaling pioneer Svend Foyn (1809–1894), named Meincke, who mistook a pod of minkes for blue whales. The correct English form is minke, spelled M-I-N-K-E.
Definition
- 1Synonym of minke whale.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how minke appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Minkes can grow to 10m and are likely to approach boats, delighting passengers with acrobatics as they hurl themselves out of the water.
Etymology
From Norwegian minkehval, allegedly after a crew member of the Norwegian whaling pioneer Svend Foyn (1809–1894), named Meincke, who mistook a pod of minkes for blue whales.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "minke", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).