Smalltalk
"smalltalk" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Smalltalk” is uncommon English (frequency #69,449 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #69,449
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An object-oriented, dynamically-typed, reflective programming language.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Smalltalk |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #69,449 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Smalltalk” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Smalltalk is uncommon English at frequency #69,449 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An object-oriented, dynamically-typed, reflective programming language.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for Smalltalk, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From small talk; according to Alan Kay (one of its creators): The name actually appeared before the first Smalltalk design, which was done in 1971. I had mentioned to someone that the "prose" of then current programming languages was lower than a cocktail p… The correct English form is Smalltalk, spelled S-M-A-L-L-T-A-L-K.
Definition
- 1An object-oriented, dynamically-typed, reflective programming language.
Etymology
From small talk; according to Alan Kay (one of its creators): The name actually appeared before the first Smalltalk design, which was done in 1971. I had mentioned to someone that the "prose" of then current programming languages was lower than a cocktail party conversation, and that great progress would have been made if we could even get to the level of making "smalltalk". It then occured^([sic]) to me that this word was also a great pun for a language aimed at the world of small children. As for hype: Another motive for "smalltalk" was the practice at the time of naming operating, and other, systems (which hardly did anything) after mighty indo-european gods, such as Thor, Zeus, Odin, etc. I figured that if Smalltalk ever did something neat, then people would be pleasantly surprised.
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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Using “Smalltalk”
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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.