taillight

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"taillight" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“taillight” is uncommon English (frequency #70,316 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,316
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One of a pair of red lights mounted on the rear of a vehicle, so it can be seen from the rear at night.

Corpus desk

Index EN-taillight · taillight · English

taillight · rank #70,316 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,316
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH tactless

Nearest frequency peer: tactless (-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 “taillight”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “taillight” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for taillight
PropertyValue
Headwordtaillight
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Frequency rank#70,316
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “taillight” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).taillightfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Rare peers in the same band: “tactless” (#70,315), “Takata” (#70,317), “taluk” (#70,318). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “taillight” is #70,316. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

taillight is uncommon English at frequency #70,316 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "One of a pair of red lights mounted on the rear of a vehicle, so it can be seen from the rear at night.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for taillight, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From tail + light. The correct English form is taillight, spelled T-A-I-L-L-I-G-H-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    One of a pair of red lights mounted on the rear of a vehicle, so it can be seen from the rear at night.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how taillight appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. All moved to the front street, where Grierson snibbed on his tail-light and turned to ask the trooper, "They've got the main road ploughed up farther on, haven't they?"

Etymology

From tail + light.

This word in other languages

calavera(Español)Rücklicht(Deutsch)

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

How do you spell "taillight"?
"taillight" is spelled T-A-I-L-L-I-G-H-T.
What does "taillight" mean?
As a noun, "taillight" means: One of a pair of red lights mounted on the rear of a vehicle, so it can be seen from the rear at night.
What is the origin of the word "taillight"?
From tail + light. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "taillight", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

subsiding#70,302spinnaker#70,283ultrafast#70,357urticaria#70,368

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list