nicking
"nicking" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“nicking” is uncommon English (frequency #70,956 among 1,534 “N” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,956
- frequency rank, English
- 1,534
- “N” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A small cut or nick.
Corpus desk
Index EN-nicking · nicking · English
nicking · rank #70,956 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #70,956
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,534
- PHOTO-FINISH Noguchi
Nearest frequency peer: Noguchi (+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 “nicking”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- nephropathy
nephropathy
29,049 corpus weight
- nervy
nervy
29,048 corpus weight
- nicking
nicking
29,045 corpus weight
- Noguchi
Noguchi
29,043 corpus weight
- Norristown
Norristown
29,042 corpus weight
- Northants
Northants
29,041 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “nicking” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | nicking |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #70,956 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “nicking” in English
Rare enough to double-check
nicking is uncommon English at frequency #70,956 among 1,534 “N” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for nicking in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is nicking, spelled N-I-C-K-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1A small cut or nick.
- 2The cutting made by the hewer at the side of the face.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how nicking appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The physicians sounded a warning about shaving among both men and women who have pigmented moles on the skin. Such moles, they cautioned, should never be irritated by repeated nickings.
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.
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "nicking", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).