sea swallow

noun

"sea-swallow" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“sea swallow” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The common tern (Sterna hirundo).

Key facts for sea swallow
PropertyValue
Headwordsea swallow
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “sea swallow” sits in English frequency

sea swallow falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sea swallow is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for sea swallow in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is sea swallow, spelled S-E-A- -S-W-A-L-L-O-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    The common tern (Sterna hirundo).
  2. 2
    The storm petrel.
  3. 3
    A mollusc of genus Glaucus.

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

How do you spell "sea swallow"?
"sea swallow" is spelled S-E-A- -S-W-A-L-L-O-W.
What does "sea swallow" mean?
As a noun, "sea swallow" means: The common tern (Sterna hirundo).
What language does "sea swallow" come from?
"sea swallow" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “sea swallow”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-E-A- -S-W-A-L-L-O-W - 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list