tab
/tæb/
"tab" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tab” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #7,620) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #7,620
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A small flap or strip of material attached to or inserted into something, for holding, manipulation, identification, opening etc.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tab · tab · English
tab · rank #7,620 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,620
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH supposedly
Nearest frequency peer: supposedly (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “tab”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- suburbs
suburbs
92,384 corpus weight
- superb
superb
92,383 corpus weight
- supposedly
supposedly
92,382 corpus weight
- tab
tab
92,381 corpus weight
- tendency
tendency
92,380 corpus weight
- that'll
that'll
92,379 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “tab” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tab |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tæb/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #7,620 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “tab”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for tab is neighbouring look-alikes ("to", "TV", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /tæb/. Frequency #7,620 among 3,151 “T” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
No generated misspelling entries exist for tab in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "to", "TV", "te", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: First attested 1607, of uncertain origin. The correct English form is tab, spelled T-A-B.
Definition
- 1A small flap or strip of material attached to or inserted into something, for holding, manipulation, identification, opening etc.
- 2An ear.
- 3A navigational widget, resembling a physical tab, for switching between documents or sets of controls.
- 4The page or form associated with such a navigational widget.
- 5A fast march or run with full kit.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tab appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
insert tab A into slot B
"His name was written upon a tab within it - Maple White, Lake Avenue, Detroit, Michigan."
Etymology
First attested 1607, of uncertain origin.
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); 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tab", not the corpus desk frequency band.