running mate
"running-mate" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“running mate” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A candidate on a joint ticket.
Corpus desk
Index EN-running-mate · running mate · English
running mate · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" 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 | running mate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “running mate” in English
Rare enough to double-check
running mate is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for running mate, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is running mate, spelled R-U-N-N-I-N-G- -M-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1A candidate on a joint ticket.
- 2A candidate for the US vice-presidency.
- 3One of a pair of ships with coordinated, often reciprocal, sailing schedules.
- 4One of a pair of horses running the same race for the same stable or owner.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how running mate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
My first decision after being assured of victory was to choose my running mate. I decided that I needed to compensate for my lack of experience in Washington, and seriously considered Senators John Glenn, Frank Church, Scoop Jackson, Ed Muskie, and Walter Mondale.
Noem’s latest justification for fatally shooting Cricket at her farm[…]comes as fellow Republicans have all but written off her chances of being chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate in November’s presidential election.
Synonyms
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.