narwhal
/ˈnɑːʍəl/
"narwhal" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“narwhal” is uncommon English (frequency #68,477 among 24,391 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #68,477
- frequency rank, English
- 24,391
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Monodon monoceros, an Arctic cetacean that grows to about 20 feet (6 meters) long, the male having a single horn-like tusk, a twisted, pointed canine tooth that projects forward.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | narwhal |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈnɑːʍəl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #68,477 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “narwhal” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
narwhal is uncommon English at frequency #68,477 among 24,391 “N” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈnɑːʍəl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Monodon monoceros, an Arctic cetacean that grows to about 20 feet (6 meters) long, the male having a single horn-like tusk, a twisted, pointed canine tooth that projects forward.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for narwhal, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Dutch narwal or Danish/Norwegian Bokmål narhval, from Old Norse náhvalr, from nár (“corpse”) + hvalr (“whale”). Compare Icelandic náhvalur. The correct English form is narwhal, spelled N-A-R-W-H-A-L.
Definition
- 1Monodon monoceros, an Arctic cetacean that grows to about 20 feet (6 meters) long, the male having a single horn-like tusk, a twisted, pointed canine tooth that projects forward.
Etymology
From Dutch narwal or Danish/Norwegian Bokmål narhval, from Old Norse náhvalr, from nár (“corpse”) + hvalr (“whale”). Compare Icelandic náhvalur.
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 “narwhal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is N-A-R-W-H-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈnɑːʍəl/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.