tadpole
/ˈtædpoʊl/
"tadpole" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tadpole” is an uncommon English word, ranked #52,665 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #52,665
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A young toad or frog in its larval stage of development that lives in water, has a tail and no legs, and, like a fish, breathes through gills.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tadpole |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtædpoʊl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #52,665 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tadpole” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tadpole is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈtædpoʊl/. Corpus data places it at rank #52,665 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for tadpole, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tadpolle, taddepol, equivalent to toad + poll (“head”). The correct English form is tadpole, spelled T-A-D-P-O-L-E.
Definition
- 1A young toad or frog in its larval stage of development that lives in water, has a tail and no legs, and, like a fish, breathes through gills.
- 2The aquatic larva of any amphibian.
- 3A type of cargo bike that has two wheels in front and one in back.
- 4A child's basic drawing of a human being, having a detailed head but only sticks for the body and limbs.
- 5A small child.
- 6An insignificant person.
Etymology
From Middle English tadpolle, taddepol, equivalent to toad + poll (“head”).
Synonyms
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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Using “tadpole”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-D-P-O-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈtædpoʊl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.