tailwind
/ˈteɪlwɪnd/
"tailwind" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tailwind” is uncommon English (frequency #66,333 among 27,828 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,333
- frequency rank, English
- 27,828
- “T” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A wind that blows in the same direction as the course taken by an aircraft, sailing ship, bird, etc.; a following wind.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tailwind |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈteɪlwɪnd/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #66,333 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tailwind” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
tailwind is uncommon English at frequency #66,333 among 27,828 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈteɪlwɪnd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for tailwind in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From tail + wind. The correct English form is tailwind, spelled T-A-I-L-W-I-N-D.
Definition
- 1A wind that blows in the same direction as the course taken by an aircraft, sailing ship, bird, etc.; a following wind.
- 2A force that accelerates progress.
Etymology
From tail + wind.
This word in other languages
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 “tailwind”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-A-I-L-W-I-N-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈteɪlwɪnd/ (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.