tail
/ˈteɪ̯l/noun, verb, adjective
tail is spelled T-A-I-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 4,015th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “tail vs tale” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, tail means “The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tail is tails.
How many letters and syllables are in tail?
| Letters | 4: T-A-I-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 22 times per million words; the 4,015th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is tail?
Tail appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 4,015th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce tail?
- US /ˈteɪ̯l/
- US [ˈtʰeɪ̯l]
- /ˈteːl/
Tail has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-tail.ogg, En-au-tail.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with tail
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with tail?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as tail from its last stressed vowel (/eɪl/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: tali, lait, ital.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of tail
- tails plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- tailing participle, present
- tailed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tail mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca.
Most primates have a tail and fangs.
- 2
An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails; a strand of material hanging from something.
- 3
The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
- 4
The feathers attached to the pygostyle of a bird.
- 5
The tail-end of any object.
- 6
The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage.
- 7
The visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind.
- 8
The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part.
- 9
Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs.
tail male
verb
- 1
To hold by the end; said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; with in or into
- 2
To swing with the stern in a certain direction; said of a vessel at anchor.
This vessel tails downstream.
- 3
To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
- 4
To follow and observe surreptitiously.
Tail that car!
- 5
To pull or draw by the tail.
adjective
- 1
Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.
estate tail
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tail in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | queue , empennage , pile |
| German | Schwanz, Schweif, Sterz, Stert, Zagel, Bürzel |
| Portuguese | rabo, cauda , seguir |
| Spanish | cola, rabo, hopo , nalgas, maslo, penca |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does tail come from?
From Middle English tail, taile, taille, tayil, tayl, tayle, tayll, teil, tæȝel, from Old English tæġel, 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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).