tailbone
/ˈteɪlˌbəʊn/
"tailbone" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tailbone” is uncommon English (frequency #84,815 among 27,828 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #84,815
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The final fused vertebrae at the base of the spine; the coccyx.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tailbone |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈteɪlˌbəʊn/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #84,815 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tailbone” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
tailbone is uncommon English at frequency #84,815 among 27,828 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈteɪlˌbəʊn/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The final fused vertebrae at the base of the spine; the coccyx.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for tailbone, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. 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 tail + bone. The correct English form is tailbone, spelled T-A-I-L-B-O-N-E.
Definition
- 1The final fused vertebrae at the base of the spine; the coccyx.
Etymology
From tail + bone.
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 “tailbone”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-I-L-B-O-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈteɪlˌbəʊn/ (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
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.