small talk
"small-talk" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“small talk” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Idle conversation, typically regarding innocuous or unimportant subjects, usually engaged in at social gatherings out of politeness.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | small talk |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “small talk” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for small talk is 10 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Idle conversation, typically regarding innocuous or unimportant subjects, usually engaged in at social gatherings out of politeness.".
No misspelling variants are generated for small talk in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
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 small talk, spelled S-M-A-L-L- -T-A-L-K.
Definition
- 1Idle conversation, typically regarding innocuous or unimportant subjects, usually engaged in at social gatherings out of politeness.
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 “small talk”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-M-A-L-L- -T-A-L-K - 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.