tabla
/ˈtɑblə/
"tabla" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tabla” is uncommon English (frequency #78,184 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #78,184
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A pair of tuned hand drums, used in various musical genres of the Indian subcontinent, that are similar to bongos.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tabla · tabla · English
tabla · rank #78,184 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #78,184
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH Tammi
Nearest frequency peer: Tammi (+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.
Long-tail ranks near “tabla”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- sycophantic
sycophantic
21,822 corpus weight
- tabla
tabla
21,817 corpus weight
- Tammi
Tammi
21,816 corpus weight
- tannic
tannic
21,815 corpus weight
- tansy
tansy
21,814 corpus weight
- tearoom
tearoom
21,813 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “tabla” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tabla |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtɑblə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #78,184 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tabla” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tabla is uncommon English at frequency #78,184 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈtɑblə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A pair of tuned hand drums, used in various musical genres of the Indian subcontinent, that are similar to bongos.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for tabla in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Hindustani طبلہ / तबला (tablā), from Arabic طَبْلَة (ṭabla). Cognate of Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese tambor. The correct English form is tabla, spelled T-A-B-L-A.
Definition
- 1A pair of tuned hand drums, used in various musical genres of the Indian subcontinent, that are similar to bongos.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how tabla appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Idealized membranes, plates and bars are clearly inadequate and give way to the reality of tablas, gongs and zanzas.
Etymology
From Hindustani طبلہ / तबला (tablā), from Arabic طَبْلَة (ṭabla). Cognate of Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese tambor.
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
How do you spell "tabla"?
What does "tabla" mean?
How do you pronounce "tabla"?
What is the origin of the word "tabla"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tabla", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).