sweep something under the carpet
"sweep-something-under-the-carpet" is a 28-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sweep something under the carpet” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 32
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of sweep something under the rug.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sweep-something-under-th · sweep something under the carpet · English
sweep something under the carpet · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 32 letters
- VOW-10 10 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sweep something under the carpet |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 32 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sweep something under the carpet” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sweep something under the carpet is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Synonym of sweep something under the rug.".
sweep something under the carpet doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is sweep something under the carpet, spelled S-W-E-E-P- -S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G- -U-N-D-E-R- -T-H-E- -C-A-R-P-E-T.
Definition
- 1Synonym of sweep something under the rug.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sweep something under the carpet appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure I've been struggling with what I am now for 6 years—and it's time to stop sweeping the issue under the carpet
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.