pangolin
/ˈpæŋɡəlɪn/
"pangolin" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pangolin” is uncommon English (frequency #62,395 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #62,395
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of several long-tailed, scale-covered mammals of the family Manidae within the order Pholidota of tropical Africa and Asia.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pangolin · pangolin · English
pangolin · rank #62,395 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #62,395
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH paramour
Nearest frequency peer: paramour (+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 “pangolin”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- padawan
padawan
37,610 corpus weight
- paedophilia
paedophilia
37,609 corpus weight
- painlessly
painlessly
37,608 corpus weight
- pangolin
pangolin
37,606 corpus weight
- paramour
paramour
37,605 corpus weight
- partiality
partiality
37,603 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “pangolin” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pangolin |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpæŋɡəlɪn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #62,395 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pangolin” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pangolin is uncommon English at frequency #62,395 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpæŋɡəlɪn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of several long-tailed, scale-covered mammals of the family Manidae within the order Pholidota of tropical Africa and Asia.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for pangolin in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Malay pengguling, from peng- (“denominative prefix”) + guling (“to roll”). The correct English form is pangolin, spelled P-A-N-G-O-L-I-N.
Definition
- 1Any of several long-tailed, scale-covered mammals of the family Manidae within the order Pholidota of tropical Africa and Asia.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how pangolin appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Like many Sri Lankans, pangolins have big tongues, thick hides and small brains. They pick on ants, rats and anything smaller than them. They hide in terror when faced with bullies and get up to mischief when the lights are out. They are hundreds of thousands of years old and are plodding towards extinction.
Etymology
Borrowed from Malay pengguling, from peng- (“denominative prefix”) + guling (“to roll”).
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 "pangolin", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).