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tailing

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "tailing", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "tailing" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "tailing" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

tailing is aEnglishnoun. It means: The act of following someone. Often confused with taking and timing.

Key facts for tailing
PropertyValue
Headwordtailing
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Frequency rank#42,442
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of tailing in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for tailing is 7 letters long, classified as anoun. Corpus data places it at rank #42,442 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for tailing, with forms such as "atiling", "taiilng", and "tailign". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "taking", "timing", "taxing", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is tailing, spelled T-A-I-L-I-N-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act of following someone.
  2. 2
    The part of a projecting stone or brick inserted in a wall.
  3. 3
    The lighter parts of grain separated from the seed by threshing and winnowing; chaff.
  4. 4
    A prolongation of current in a telegraph line, due to capacity in the line and causing signals to run together.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: atiling,taiilng,tailign,tailingg,tailinng,tailling,tailnig,taliing,tialing,ttailing

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for tailing

Misspelling Variants of "tailing"

atiling7taiilng7tailign7tailingg8tailinng8tailling8tailnig7taliing7
Misspelling Variants of "tailing"

Frequency rank: #42,442 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tailing"?
"tailing" is spelled T-A-I-L-I-N-G.
What does "tailing" mean?
As a noun, "tailing" means: The act of following someone.
What words are commonly confused with "tailing"?
"tailing" is commonly confused with "taking", "timing", "taxing". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "tailing" come from?
"tailing" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter T in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.