take five

verb

"take-five" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“take five” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To take a short, typically five-minute, break from some activity.

Corpus desk

Index EN-take-five · take five · English

take five · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for take five
PropertyValue
Headwordtake five
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “take five” in English

take fiveranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

take five is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To take a short, typically five-minute, break from some activity.".

take five has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is take five, spelled T-A-K-E- -F-I-V-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    To take a short, typically five-minute, break from some activity.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Hey, stop fighting! Take five, people!

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "take five"?
"take five" is spelled T-A-K-E- -F-I-V-E.
What does "take five" mean?
As a verb, "take five" means: To take a short, typically five-minute, break from some activity.
What language does "take five" come from?
"take five" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list