only child
"only-child" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“only child” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person who has no siblings; a person raised as the sole child in a household.
Corpus desk
Index EN-only-child · only child · English
only child · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "O" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | only child |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “only child” in English
Rare enough to double-check
only child is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A person who has no siblings; a person raised as the sole child in a household.".
Zero misspellings are on record for only child in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is only child, spelled O-N-L-Y- -C-H-I-L-D.
Definition
- 1A person who has no siblings; a person raised as the sole child in a household.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how only child appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
An only child is often stereotyped as spoiled.
Tali: It's my father. He's the senior member of the Admiralty Board. He's one of only five people who can overrule the decisions of the Conclave for the good of the Migrant Fleet. Tali: My father is responsible for the lives of seventeen million people -- our entire race is in his hands. And I'm his only child.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.