tahini
/tɑːˈhiː.ni/
"tahini" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tahini” is uncommon English (frequency #66,331 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,331
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A paste made from ground sesame seeds, and used to make hummus, baba ghanoush etc.
Corpus desk
Index EN-tahini · tahini · English
tahini · rank #66,331 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #66,331
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH T9
Nearest frequency peer: T9 (-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 “tahini”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- séance
séance
33,673 corpus weight
- T9
T9
33,671 corpus weight
- tahini
tahini
33,670 corpus weight
- tailback
tailback
33,669 corpus weight
- tailwind
tailwind
33,668 corpus weight
- Takeuchi
Takeuchi
33,667 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “tahini” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tahini |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tɑːˈhiː.ni/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #66,331 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “tahini” in English
Rare enough to double-check
tahini is uncommon English at frequency #66,331 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /tɑːˈhiː.ni/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A paste made from ground sesame seeds, and used to make hummus, baba ghanoush etc.".
tahini doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Arabic طَحِينَة (ṭaḥīna), from the root ط ح ن (ṭ-ḥ-n) related to grinding. Final -i most probably from North Levantine dialects or from Greek ταχίνι (tachíni). The correct English form is tahini, spelled T-A-H-I-N-I.
Definition
- 1A paste made from ground sesame seeds, and used to make hummus, baba ghanoush etc.
Etymology
From Arabic طَحِينَة (ṭaḥīna), from the root ط ح ن (ṭ-ḥ-n) related to grinding. Final -i most probably from North Levantine dialects or from Greek ταχίνι (tachíni).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tahini", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).