tail

Where “tail” sits in English frequency

Definition

1. 1
   The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca.
2. 2
   An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails.
3. 3
   The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
4. 4
   The feathers attached to the pygostyle of a bird.
5. 5
   The tail-end of any object.
6. 6
   The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage.
7. 7
   The visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind.
8. 8
   The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part.
9. 9
   The part of a distribution most distant from the mode.
10. 10
    One who surreptitiously follows another.
11. 11
    The lower order of batsmen in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers.
12. 12
    The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in g, q or y.
13. 13
    The side of a coin not bearing the head; normally the side on which the monetary value of the coin is indicated; the reverse.
14. 14
    All the last terms of a sequence, from some term on.
15. 15
    The buttocks or backside.
16. 16
    The penis of a person or animal.
17. 17
    Sexual intercourse.
18. 18
    The stern; the back of the kayak.
19. 19
    A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
20. 20
    The distal tendon of a muscle.
21. 21
    A filamentous projection on the tornal section of each hind wing of certain butterflies.
22. 22
    A downy or feathery appendage of certain achens, formed of the permanent elongated style.
23. 23
    A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; called also tailing.
24. 24
    One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.
25. 25
    A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.
26. 26
    The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.
27. 27
    A tailing.
28. 28
    The bottom or lower portion of a member or part such as a slate or tile.
29. 29
    A tailcoat.
30. 30
    Synonym of pigtail (“a short length of twisted electrical wire”).
31. 31
    The final fraction of a distillation run, typically containing impurities and fusel oils.

Etymology

From Middle English tail, tayl, teil, from Old English tæġl (“tail”), from Proto-West Germanic *tagl, from Proto-Germanic *taglą (“hair, fiber; hair of a tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *doḱ- (“hair of the tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to tear, fray, shred”). Cognate with Scots tail (“tail”), Saterland Frisian Tail (“tail, end”), West Frisian teil (“tail”), Dutch teil (“tail, haulm, blade”), Low German Tagel (“twisted scourge, whip of thongs and ropes; end of a rope”), German Zagel (“tail”), dialectal Danish tavl (“hair of the tail”), Swedish tagel (“hair of the tail, horsehair”), Norwegian tagl (“tail”), Icelandic tagl (“tail, horsetail, ponytail”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐌻 (tagl, “hair”). In some senses, apparently by a generalization of the usual opposition between head and tail.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: atil,taill,tali,tial,ttail

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tail - 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.

Frequently Asked Questions