natick

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"natick" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“natick” is uncommon English (frequency #62,355 among 1,534 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#62,355
frequency rank, English
1,534
“N” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An intersection of two obscure crossword puzzle clues.

Corpus desk

Index EN-natick · natick · English

natick · rank #62,355 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #62,355
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,534
  • PHOTO-FINISH Nathanael

Nearest frequency peer: Nathanael (-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 “natick”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “natick” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for natick
PropertyValue
Headwordnatick
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters6
Frequency rank#62,355
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “natick” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).natickfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Nathanael” (#62,354), “NDI” (#62,356), “nanosecond” (#62,353). Among 1,534 “N” headwords, “natick” is #62,355. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

natick is uncommon English at frequency #62,355 among 1,534 “N” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An intersection of two obscure crossword puzzle clues.".

Zero misspellings are on record for natick in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: Named after Natick, Massachusetts, used as an example of an obscure clue with, “Town at the eighth mile of the Boston Marathon”. The town is named after the local native word from the Natick people for “Land of Many Hills”. The correct English form is natick, spelled N-A-T-I-C-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    An intersection of two obscure crossword puzzle clues.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how natick appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. “The NATICK Principle. And here it is: If you include a proper noun in your grid that you cannot reasonably expect more than 1/4 of the solving public to have heard of, you must cross that noun with reasonably common words and phrases or very common names.”
  2. “A crossword blogger by the name of Rex Parker critiqued one of my puzzles in The New York Times, where the illustrator 'N.C. Wyeth' crossed the Boston town 'Natick,'” Quigley explains. “[Parker] said, 'Who in their right mind is going to understand what's going to fit in that one square? It's totally unfair. From now on, this shall be known as the Natick…

Etymology

Named after Natick, Massachusetts, used as an example of an obscure clue with, “Town at the eighth mile of the Boston Marathon”. The town is named after the local native word from the Natick people for “Land of Many Hills”.

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

How do you spell "natick"?
"natick" is spelled N-A-T-I-C-K.
What does "natick" mean?
As a noun, "natick" means: An intersection of two obscure crossword puzzle clues.
What is the origin of the word "natick"?
Named after Natick, Massachusetts, used as an example of an obscure clue with, “Town at the eighth mile of the Boston Marathon”. The town is named after the local native word from the Natick people for “Land of Many Hills”. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "natick", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

normie#62,368morena#62,340morass#62,339minuet#62,325

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list