slip of the tongue
"slip-of-the-tongue" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“slip of the tongue” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A mistake in speech.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | slip of the tongue |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “slip of the tongue” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
slip of the tongue is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A mistake in speech.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for slip of the tongue, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of Latin lapsus linguae. The correct English form is slip of the tongue, spelled S-L-I-P- -O-F- -T-H-E- -T-O-N-G-U-E.
Definition
- 1A mistake in speech.
Etymology
Calque of Latin lapsus linguae.
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 “slip of the tongue”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-L-I-P- -O-F- -T-H-E- -T-O-N-G-U-E - 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.