scratching post
"scratching-post" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scratching post” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A wooden post, wrapped in a piece of carpet (or similar material), that a domestic cat is encouraged to scratch (rather than the furniture).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | scratching post |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “scratching post” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
scratching post is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A wooden post, wrapped in a piece of carpet (or similar material), that a domestic cat is encouraged to scratch (rather than the furniture).".
No misspelling variants are generated for scratching post in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is scratching post, spelled S-C-R-A-T-C-H-I-N-G- -P-O-S-T.
Definition
- 1A wooden post, wrapped in a piece of carpet (or similar material), that a domestic cat is encouraged to scratch (rather than the furniture).
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “scratching post”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-C-R-A-T-C-H-I-N-G- -P-O-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.