stretch mark
"stretch-mark" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stretch mark” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of a series of red (or purple or faded), irregular stripes on the surface of the skin caused by rapid growth of the tissues lying just underneath. They may appear as a result of pregnancy, pube...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | stretch mark |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stretch mark” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
stretch mark is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of a series of red (or purple or faded), irregular stripes on the surface of the skin caused by rapid growth of the tissues lying just underneath. They may appear as a result of pregnancy, pube...".
stretch mark doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
No borrowing history is documented 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 stretch mark, spelled S-T-R-E-T-C-H- -M-A-R-K.
Definition
- 1Any of a series of red (or purple or faded), irregular stripes on the surface of the skin caused by rapid growth of the tissues lying just underneath. They may appear as a result of pregnancy, puberty, obesity, rapid muscle growth or family history.
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 “stretch mark”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-R-E-T-C-H- -M-A-R-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.