satay
/ˈsæt.eɪ/
"satay" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“satay” is uncommon English (frequency #71,884 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #71,884
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A dish made from small pieces of meat or fish grilled on a skewer and served with a spicy peanut sauce, originating from Indonesia and Malaysia.
Corpus desk
Index EN-satay · satay · English
satay · rank #71,884 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #71,884
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Sapir
Nearest frequency peer: Sapir (-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 “satay”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Sandhya
Sandhya
28,122 corpus weight
- Sapir
Sapir
28,119 corpus weight
- satay
satay
28,117 corpus weight
- scaredy
scaredy
28,114 corpus weight
- schnapps
schnapps
28,113 corpus weight
- Schrödinger
Schrödinger
28,111 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “satay” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | satay |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsæt.eɪ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #71,884 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “satay” in English
Rare enough to double-check
satay is uncommon English at frequency #71,884 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈsæt.eɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A dish made from small pieces of meat or fish grilled on a skewer and served with a spicy peanut sauce, originating from Indonesia and Malaysia.".
satay has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Malay sate (“satay”), ultimately from Tamil சதை (catai). The correct English form is satay, spelled S-A-T-A-Y.
Definition
- 1A dish made from small pieces of meat or fish grilled on a skewer and served with a spicy peanut sauce, originating from Indonesia and Malaysia.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how satay appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Crabbe bought sateh for all: tiny knobs and wedges of fire-hot meat on wooden skewers, to be dipped in a lukewarm sauce of fire and eaten with slivers of sweet potato and cucumber.
Etymology
From Malay sate (“satay”), ultimately from Tamil சதை (catai).
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 "satay", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).