tacky
/ˈtæki/
"tacky" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tacky” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,121 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #23,121
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Of a substance, slightly sticky.
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 | tacky |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈtæki/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #23,121 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tacky” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tacky is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtæki/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,121 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Of a substance, slightly sticky.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for tacky, with forms such as "atcky", "taccky", and "tackky". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tak", "tay", "take", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From tack + -y. The correct English form is tacky, spelled T-A-C-K-Y.
Definition
- 1Of a substance, slightly sticky.
Etymology
From tack + -y.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: atcky,taccky,tackky,tackyy,tacyk,takcy,tcaky,ttacky
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tacky - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “tacky”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-C-K-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtæki/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “tak” - see the side-by-side comparison. tacky vs tak
- 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.