monkfish
/ˈmʌŋk.fɪʃ/
"monkfish" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“monkfish” is uncommon English (frequency #82,555 among 4,057 “M” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #82,555
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any large bottom-dwelling anglerfish of the genus Lophius, such as Lophius piscatorius, of the Atlantic, having a large head and mouth.
Corpus desk
Index EN-monkfish · monkfish · English
monkfish · rank #82,555 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #82,555
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH Mohammadi
Nearest frequency peer: Mohammadi (-2 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 “monkfish”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- misting
misting
17,452 corpus weight
- Mohammadi
Mohammadi
17,448 corpus weight
- monkfish
monkfish
17,446 corpus weight
- moonshot
moonshot
17,442 corpus weight
- Morant
Morant
17,441 corpus weight
- moulder
moulder
17,439 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “monkfish” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | monkfish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmʌŋk.fɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #82,555 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “monkfish” in English
Rare enough to double-check
monkfish is uncommon English at frequency #82,555 among 4,057 “M” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈmʌŋk.fɪʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for monkfish, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From monk + fish. The correct English form is monkfish, spelled M-O-N-K-F-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1Any large bottom-dwelling anglerfish of the genus Lophius, such as Lophius piscatorius, of the Atlantic, having a large head and mouth.
- 2An angel shark, of the genus Squatina.
- 3A sea monk (“folkloric creature”).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how monkfish appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I’ve had the good luck to cook monkfish on both sides of the Atlantic. The European monkfish is Lophius piscatorius, while our western Atlantic brand is Lophius americanus.
[The] monkfish is preceded by the “monstre Leonin” and followed by the “monstre marinen habit d'Evesque” (de Monstro Leonino and de pisce Episcopi habitu respectively). The creature represented in these works is a hybrid: his round and tonsured ...
Etymology
From monk + fish.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "monkfish", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).